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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ! 



§g foljont is llje iuorfe k k Ccniideb? 



OR 



CHRISTIANS 



CHRIST'S REPRESENTATIVES AND AGENTS 



CONVERSION OF THE WORLD. 



THOMAS Si^ 




PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST OF THE STFOD OF SOUTH CAROLINA,, 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 

No. 265 Chestnut Street. 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1856, 

Br JAMES DUNLAP, 

In the Clerk's ofiB.ce of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. 

As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them 
into the world. 

For none of us liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself. 

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. All power is given unto 
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you ; and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
tht world. Amen. 



The Rev. C. Simeon thus wrote: — "Religion in its 
rise interests us almost exclusively about ourselves ; in 
its progress it engages us about the welfare of our fel- 
low-creatures ; in its more advanced stages, it animates 
us to consult on all things, and to exalt to the utmost 
of our power the power of God." 

*^The believer in Jesus Christ is the universal bene- 
factor; and it is by such free giving of his free receiv- 
ings, that he not only enriches the world, but that he 
obtains grace for grace, and augments the strength, the 
beauty, and the happiness of his own soul. By such 
scattering he increases." — Dr. James Hamilton. 

"If any man doubts whether, as a Christian, he is 
bound by the terms of his discipleship, to aid by prayer, 
self-denying sacrifice, and personal exertion, in preach- 
ing the gospel to every creature, let him, as the Duke 



OF AVellington once appropriately and graphically 
said, * look to his commission, and there find his march- 
ing orders.'" 

***Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and 
my burden is light. ' Truth, Lord ! a light burden, indeed, 
which supports him who bears it. I have looked abroad 
through nature, to see if I could find anything that could 
bear some analogy to this; but I cannot find it, unless 
it be the wings of a bird, which, while borne of the 
creature, bear him aloft. In trath, to bear the Lord's 
burden is to be permitted to cast it, together with our- 
selves, into the arms of Omnipotence and Grace. — 
Bernard of Clairvaux. 

Luther says: — <*The command of love is a short 
command, and a long command, a simple command and 
a multitudinous command, no command and every com- 
mand ; for the command of love destroys all commands, 
and yet establishes all." 

*'Ithas been an intense and a growing conviction in the 
minds of some of us, that there is not at this moment 
one single Church in Christendom, as a whole, in any 
way adequately alive to the reality, the true nature, and 
transcendent grandeur of God's greatest work on earth, 
even that of the evangelization of the world." — Dr. 
Duff. 



CONTEIN^TS, 



Page. 
Preface 7 

The Kingdom of Christ destined to become uni- 
versal 9 

TMs Universality of the Kingdom of Christ to be 
brought about through the instrumentality of 
Man 17 

Self-Denial, and living for others, a universal 
law among all holy beings, and restored by 
Redemption 25 

This principle of Love, and living for others, 
illustriously exemplified in God, and in Christ 
our Savioui' 30 

Christianity the embodiment, and Christians the 
living models, of this spirit of self-denying 
love .33 

Selfish piety not only not Christian, but anti- 

christian 42 



6 CONTENTS. 

Page. 
The extension of God's kingdom has always been 

a trust for which man has been responsible 50 

Active, self-denying and liberal co-operation in the 
cause of Christ, not indifferent, but essential 
to Christians and Churches 58 

All can do something 64 

This is the only way to secure prosperity and peace, 

here and hereafter 66 

No man liveth or dieth unto himself. 73 

Our churches and church members must do more. ... 80 

What can be done ? 81 

Motiyes for doing what every one can do 83 

Appendix 95 



PREFACE. 



The author's design in this argument is to 
bring the subject of liberality and devotion 
to the cause of Foreign Missions not only to 
the consideration of the understanding, so as 
to awaken conviction, but into the more inti- 
mate presence of the affections of the heart, 
so as to make it feel that this is a work that 
comes home to every man's business and 
bosom. He would appeal, therefore, not 
merely to faith, but also to hope; not merely 
to a sense of obligation, but also to that of 
interest and self-love. He would show that 
the conversion of the world is not only a 
work that shall be, and that ought to be, ac- 
complished, but that it is one in whose ac- 
complishment every individual Christian and 
church has both a partnership and a pro- 
prietorship; both a labour to perform and 

(7) 



8 PREFACE. 

remuneration to secure. He would thus im- 
part to his readers not only conviction of a 
trust, but a willingness to recognize, and 
power to full&l it. He would enkindle not 
only a greater readiness and desire towards 
this "good work," but love itself. And by 
showing the relation in which activity in this 
mission of the Church stands to immortality, 
to union and fellowship with Christ, and to 
spirituality, and hope, and joy, he would 
desire to make that a labour of love and a 
life of pleasantness and peace, which, in the 
light of obligation merely, might wear to 
some the aspect of hopelessness, self-denial, 
and unrequiting, if not useless toil. 

May He who has graciously declared, that 
he is glorified when his disciples bear much 
fruit, and that they prove their love to him 
by their obedience to his commandments, ac- 
company this appeal with his Spirit, and 
cause his Church and people to arise and 
shine, the glory of the Lord having arisen 
upon them. 



BY WHOM IS THE WORLD TO BE 
CONVERTED? 



THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST DESTINED TO BECOME UNIVERSAL. 

Every one who receives the Bible as 
"given by inspiration of God," must believe 
that it will be all verified through the work- 
ing of that infinite wisdom and power with 
which he makes all things to conspire for 
the fulfilment of his purposes, so that 
though heaven and earth may pass away, 
one jot or tittle of all he has said shall in 
no wise pass away till all be fulfilled. 

Every believer in the Bible must there- 
fore be convinced that the kingdom of Christ 
is destined to extend its spiritual conquests, 
until it shall include within its dominion all 
kingdoms and nations. Nothing can be 
more explicit than the repeated declarations 
of this purpose, contained in the word of 
2 



10 BY WHOM IS THE TTORLD 

God. '' I will declare the decree. The 
Lord [L e. Jehovah) hath said unto me, 
Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten 
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the 
heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- 
most parts of the earth for thy possession." 
This is a part of the covenant which has been 
entered into between the Father and the Son 
in ^' the counsel of peace that was between 
them both." Therefore all nations and 
kings are commanded, at their peril, to 
recognize and be in subjection to Christ. 
(Psalm ii; see also Psalm ex.) This is no 
doubtful interpretation. Of this same decree 
we have another account by the prophet 
Daniel (vii. 13, 14, i!T); '•! saw in the night 
\isions, and behold, one like the Son of Man 
came with the clouds (the myriad host) of 
heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, 
and they brought him near before him. 
And there was given him dominion and 
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, na- 
tions, and languages should serve him. His 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that 



TO BE CONVERTED? 11 

which shall not be destroyed. And the 
kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of 
the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall 
be given to the people of the saints of the 
Most Hiorh, whose kinixdom is an everlasting: 
kingdom, and all dominions (or rulers) shall 
serve him.*' 

This dominion was assumed and estab- 
lished by our Lord Jesus Christ, who laid 
its foundation in his finished work of obedi- 
ence unto death, and secured its ultimate 
and certain accomplishment by his resur- 
rection from the dead, his ascension into 
heaven, and his resumption, as " Head over 
all things for the Church," of that "glory 
which he had with the Father from before 
the foundation of the world.'' When, there- 
fore, after his resurrection, our Saviour 
appeared to the members of his kingdom, 
as far as then existing, who were gath- 
ered together by his special appointment, he 
said unto them : " All power is given unto 
me in heaven and on earth: go ye therefore 
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing 



12 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'* 

We repeat, therefore, our declaration, that 
every man who believes in the Bible, and in 
the Lord Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the 
world, must also believe that the kingdom of 
Christ is destined to be universal. 

Everything about it is universal, and no- 
thing local, national, temporary, or exclu- 
sive. Christ, its King and Redeemer, is " the 
Saviour of all men,'' and ''the propitiation 
for our sins, and not for ours only, but also 
for the sins of the vrhole world." As "God 
our Saviour, he will have all men to be saved, 
and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 
He gave himself, therefore, a ransom for 
all to be testified in due time unto all. 

The knowledge of this Saviour, and of the 
propitiation made by him for the sins of all 
in the world who believe upon him, is the 
gospel, — the good spell — "the glad tidings 
which shall be to all people," — " good will to- 
ward men." As this gospel is " everlasting," 
so it is universal, and to be proclaimed " unto 
them that dwell on the earth, and to every 



TO BE CONVERTED? 1^ 

nation, and kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
ple." 

The provisions, the promises, the com- 
mands, the obligations, the ordinances, the 
sacrifices, the benefits, and blessings of this 
kingdom are equally and alike for all men. 
It has no respect for persons, and makes no 
exceptions. It regards every man as a sin- 
ner, and guilty before God, and sweeps with 
the "besom of destruction" all the sublunary 
distinctions and difi*erences among men. In 
the administration of this kingdom " there is 
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond 
nor free, there is neither male nor female," 
there is neither high nor low, rich nor poor, 
wise nor foolish, learned nor ignorant, Saxon 
nor Celtic, European, Asiatic, African, nor 
American. "All are one" out of Christ, 
equally helpless and hopeless; and " all are 
one in Christ," "for all are the children of 
God by faith in Christ Jesus." 

This great fundamental truth, which levels 
all human distinctions in one common type 
of sin and misery, and melts all human rela- 
tionships into one common brotherhood, and 
2* 



14 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

one common fatherhood — God in Christ — is 
made equally certain by negative, as well as 
by positive, teaching. For as Christ is the 
Saviour of all men, so that whosoever of 
the sons of men believeth on him shall not 
perish, but have everlasting life, so also is 
it declared from heaven that '' neither is 
there salvation in any other, for there is 
none other name under heaven, given among 
men,'' by which any man can be saved. 
He, therefore, that believeth not on the 
Son of God (be he who or what he may) 
shall be damned. He is even condemned 
already, because he hath not believed on 
the only-begotten Son of God, and the wrath 
of God abideth on him. 

But further : as this kingdom of Christ is 
thus universal in its provisions and in its ad- 
ministration, so is it uniform in the mode by 
which men secure the appropriation of its 
blessings. Salvation can be appropriated 
by any human being, only through the exer- 
cise of faith. This is the only possible me- 
dium by which that which is external to the 
soul, that which is spiritual, invisible, or 



TO BE CONVERTED? 15 

founded upon the testimony of another, can 
become ours. Christ and his salvation can, 
therefore, become the joyful experience of 
any soul only through faith, by which, 
though now it sees not Christ, yet, believ- 
ing upon him, it rejoices with joy unspeak- 
able, and full of glory. The exercise of 
faith, in order to salvation, is thus made es- 
sentially prerequisite, not by any arbitrary 
arrangement on the part of God, nor by any- 
thing peculiar in the gospel, but by the very 
constitution of the human mind, and of the 
world around it. All knowledge, and there- 
fore all conduct, — for this depends on know- 
ledge,— and all the happiness or misery of 
life, are based ultimately on the principle of 
faith. 

But as faith results from the certainty 
of testimony and the authority and veracity 
of the testator, in order to its possible exer- 
cise, that testimony and that authority must 
be present to the mind. Man, as a rational 
being, can only believe when he has what 
he regards as sufficient authority for what is 
believed. He may be grossly deluded and 



16 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

deceived, but he believes, because ignorant 
of, or unwilling to admit, the delusion. For 
a man, therefore, to believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and in salvation through him, 
and to have that peace with God which is 
the consequence of such faith, he must neces- 
sarily possess sufficient knowledge of Christ 
and of the salvation he has accomplished. 
This is what is so logically, so philosophi- 
cally, and, at the same time, so authorita- 
tively, taught by the Apostle Paul (Rom. x. 
13.) After stating the universality of the 
gospel, and that faith is the only condition 
made necessary for its reception, — "for who- 
soever shall call on the name of the Lord 
shall be saved," — he goes on to ask, "How, 
then, shall they call on him in whom they 
have not believed ? and how shall they be- 
lieve on him of whom they have not heard? 
and how shall they hear without a preacher? 
So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hear- 
ing by the (preaching of the) word of God." 
In every point of view, therefore, in which 
they can be considered, the kingdom of 
Christ and the gospel of the kingdom, 



TO BE CONVERTED? 17 

(whether we regard them as founded on the 
decree of God or as established by Christ,) 
with all their provisions, promises, means of 
grace, and mode of appropriation, are uni- 
versal, adapted to man as man, free and full 
to all alike, and offering to every creature, 
in all the world, the unspeakable gift of 
God's only begotten Son, so that whosoever 
believeth in him may not perish, but have 
everlasting life. 

May it not, then, be laid down as a first 
principle, an incontrovertible truth, that 
every one who truly believes the Bible, 
and in Christ as the Saviour of the world, 
must also believe that his kingdom and gos- 
pel are designed to be as universal as the 
family of man? 

THIS UNIVERSALITY OF THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST TO BE 
BROUGHT ABOUT THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF 
MAN. 

We proceed to make another remark, and 
that is, that, as in accordance with the will 
and word of God, the kingdom and gospel of 
Christ are designed to be universal, and as 



18 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

all the resources and attributes of Deity must 
be considered as pledged for the fulfilment 
of this purpose, every one who truly believes 
the Bible, and in Christ as there revealed, 
must believe that this universality will be 
brought about through the agency of man. 

This is the only way by which, in consist- 
ency with man's nature, as a free, rational, 
and responsible being, and in accordance with 
the analogy of God's government in the 
natural world, the kingdom of Christ can 
become universal. 

We might conceive it possible for God 
miraculously to convey the gospel of this 
kingdom, by angelic or human agency, to 
every nation, singly and individually. But 
besides being in contrariety to the whole 
analogy of the divine government, such a me- 
thod would be contrary to the generic, funda- 
mental laws of unity, simplicity, and repre- 
sentation. It would involve an unnecessary 
multiplication of causes for the production of 
a desired result, in contrariety to those great 
laws, by each of which, singly and alone, we 
see innumerable results constantly secured. 



TO BE CONVERTED? 19 

It would break up the human race into indi- 
viduals, in violent opposition to every organic 
principle of human nature, and of the divine 
procedure in all departments of the natural 
world; and it would contradict that principle 
of representation by which the many are 
bound together under one law, one centre of 
influence, one head or representative. This 
law is found lying at the foundation of all 
order, both in the natural and moral gov- 
ernment of God, in the family, the commu- 
nity, the state, the kingdom, and the world 
at large, and is the basis of all association, 
intercourse, and business between different 
individuals and countries. 

As this method, therefore, would involve 
the adoption of supernatural, miraculous, and 
anomalous agency, where natural means 
might be employed, the only plan left for 
the universal extension of the gospel and 
kingdom of Christ, was the appointment 
of some one people, nation, or church, pre- 
pared for the purpose by proper training, 
provided with all necessary evidence, know- 
ledge, gifts, and graces, and under the 



20 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

assurance of divine guidance, eflSciency, and 
success — as witnesses, heralds, and instruct- 
ors of their fellow-men. 

Such a plan is in perfect accordance with 
the whole analogy of the natural world, and 
with all the laws mentioned. It recognizes the 
unity of the human race, their common nature, 
their common origin, apostasy, and ruin, 
their participation in the same miseries and 
forebodings of that judgment which is after 
death, the common salvation and Saviour, and 
the one and only way in which any man can be- 
come a partaker of this ''so great salvation." 

This plan is adapted, therefore, to the 
nature of man, as well as to the principles of 
God's government in the natural and moral 
world. There is also a perfect congruity be- 
tween the plan and the agent who is to carry 
it out. Man is an active being, and finds all 
his powers developed by exertion, without 
which he is unhealthy, unhappy, useless. 
Man is a social being, and can find full play 
for his faculties, and perfect enjoyment for his 
desires and afi*ections, only in companionship 
and association with his fellow men. Man 



TO BE CONVERTED? 21 

is endowed with the gift of language and 
with intelligence to learn from others, and 
to communicate knowledge to them, and in 
doing so he is aided by the marvellous power 
of the human voice, with its accompanying 
tones, looks, sympathies, and gestures. Man 
is a fearless, enterprising being, fond of tra- 
vel and of change, capable of endurance, and 
nerved by danger and exploits, and can thus 
roam the earth in search of adventure, and 
inhabit every climate. Man was designed, 
and ought, to be a benevolent being, capa- 
ble of love and pity, generosity and dis- 
interested philanthropy. He is sensitive 
to calamity, touched with woe, sympathizing 
with distress, and impelled to acts of charity 
and labours of love, by the whole power of 
his affections, and the commanding authority 
of his conscience requiring this as his duty. 
Happiness, therefore, according to the very 
constitution of man's nature, is connected 
with activity in doing good to others; and a 
man might just as reasonably expect to be 
happy in the solitude of a desert, or to be in 
health without food, as to be happy in the in- 
3 



22 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

dulgence of a selfish inactivity. Millions have 
tried the experiment, but with the same result. 
In proportion to their capacity to do good, 
and their devotion of that power to selfish 
purposes, they have destroyed their own true 
felicity, like Swift, one of the most selfish as 
he was one of the most talented of men, and 
of whom Archbishop King said that " he was 
the most unhappy man on earth/' ''And 
surely it is a striking testimony to the 
divine benevolence, that God so arranged 
the world that every generous impulse does 
as much for the giver as the receiver, while 
a man is never so happy as while intent on 
the happiness of others."* 

Man is also a spiritual being, possessed not 
only of bodily powers, and senses, and appe- 
tites, but of mind and heart, by which he 
comes into contact with other minds and 
hearts. He finds that as face answereth to 
face in a glass, so does the heart of man to 
man, and that independently of all other 
means of communication, men can enter into 

* See Note A. 



TO BE CONVERTED? 23 

each other's feelings, rejoice Tvith each other 
Vfhen they rejoice, and weep with each other 
when they weep; and that through the me- 
dium of language spoken and written, they 
can convey to each other their ideas, their 
sentiments, and their convictions. 

Man is further a representative being. 
^He is a type and model of his race. In him- 
self he has all the essential laws and princi- 
ciples of humanity, personal and yet homo- 
geneous — individual and distinct, and not a 
link in the chain, a drop in the ocean of life, 
a ray in the sunshine, a pulsation of the com- 
mon heart. Everything common to man is 
his, and nothing strange. Bearing the stamp 
of the same original and the same degrada- 
tion, he can therefore stand up among his 
fellow-men, and from the admitted principles 
of a common experience, tell them of their 
sins and sorrows, and need of salvation, by 
unfolding to them his own. 

To all this we would add, that man is a 
religious being, capable of knowing, loving, 
serving, and finding his supreme and only 
satisfying happiness in, God. As such, man 



24 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

cannot but admit that his relations to God 
are his highest, his obligations to God un- 
speakable, his duty to God paramount. He 
must feel that as God is the common Father 
of all men, all men are brethren, and that 
as it is his first and great commanded 
duty to love God with all his heart, and soul, 
and strength, and mind, so is it his se- 
cond great duty to " love his neighbour as 
himself," to love the soul of his neighbour 
even as he loves and values his own soul, 
that is, as infinitely more important than any- 
thing that is merely temporal, and, by the 
communication of spiritual knowledge, to im- 
part to the souls of his fellow-men, even as 
he would desire and feel it right, and kind, 
and merciful in others, to communicate to 
him, that spiritual good on which depends 
everlasting life. 

*' He who needetli love, to love hatli right ; 
It is not like our furs and stores of corn, 
Whereto we claim sole title by our toil. 
The God of love plants it within our hearts, 
And waters it, and gives it sun, to be 
The common stock and heritafre of all." 



TO BE CONVERTED? 25 

SELF-DENIAL, AND LIVING FOR OTHERS, A UNIVERSAL LAW 
AMONG ALL HOLY BEINGS, AND RESTORED BY REDEMP- 
TION. 

It has thus been shown that man is so 
constituted as to be not only adapted to the 
work of extending the kingdom of Christ, 
but to be incapable of the full development 
of his nature and the full measure of his 
happiness, except in active exertion and self- 
denying charity, and prayer, and interest in 
this glorious end and aim of life. It was, 
therefore, necessary for the happiness and the 
moral elevation of man, that the fulfilment 
of this great purpose of God should be 
entrusted to his agency as a "steward of 
the manifold mercies of God," that in doing 
good to others he might himself be blessed, and 
find by experience that "it is more blessed 
to give than to receive/' Man's chief end 
was that he might glorify and enjoy God. 
To enjoy God, however, he must glorify him. 
His will must be conformed to God's will, his 
life to God's law, his aim to God's purpose, 
and his whole heart to God's service. This 
was the spirit of Christ as our incarnate 
3* 



26 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

exemplar, and filled his heart with joy, so 
that he counted it even as his meat and 
drink to do the will of God. This is the 
spirit of angels, and makes angels what they 
are — holy and happy. This is the spirit of 
heaven, and fills heaven with satisfying bless- 
edness. This, too, w:s the spirit of primeval 
man, whih as yet he was unacquainted with 
grief, and untainted with sin. 

Indeed, this spirit animates all the works 
of God. "For others and not for myself," 
is the life of all that lives, the growth of all 
that grows, the existence of all that exists. 
It is the utterance alike of animate and inan- 
imate nature. In the light that enlivens us, 
the air that sustains us, the water that puri- 
fies us, the earth that nourishes us — in the 
deep mines that warm, and enrich, and gar- 
nish our persons and our habitations — in all 
the beauty, the grandeur, and the sublimity 
of nature — in every flower that blooms and 
sheds its fragrance — in every tree that 
spreads its branches so as to delight the 
eye, and ripens its fruit so as to gratify the 
taste — in every shower that waters the earth, 



TO BE CONVERTED? 27 

and every dew-drop that glistens in the 
morning ray — everywhere, and in everything, 
we find written, ''not for myself but for oth- 
ers." Most surely, then, will this be true 
of man who was made in God's image, but 
a little lower than the angels, God's exemp- 
lar, representative, and almoner upon earth. 
''No man liveth unto himself" is the law 
impressed upon his nature, the condition of 
his being, the prerequisite of his well-being, 
the inflexible rule and measure of his worth, 
and the inexorable awarder of his propor- 
tionate recompense in present enjoyment and 
ever-abiding happiness. 

A man, therefore, who lives to himself, 
is an anomaly in the universe. He is the 
only being and the only thing, in all the cre- 
ation of God, that so exists. He is a moral 
monster, ugly, misshapen, deformed, without 
natural affection, an abomination in the sight 
of God and of all holy beings — "earthly, 
sensual, devilish." Yes, selfishness is the 
law of Satan, not of God ; of human corrup- 
tion, not of human nature ; of man fallen, 
not of man upright. It is sin, and guilt, 



28 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

and misery. It is the black and damning 
proof of man's rebellion against God, and 
subjection to the Evil One. It undermines 
man's nature, God's law, earth's happiness, 
heaven's holiness, the very throne and majes- 
ty of God. It has driven out legions of 
apostate angels from heaven, peopled earth 
with criminals, and hordes of beings more 
reckless and ruthless than the beasts of the 
forest ; prepared hell for the devil, his an- 
gels, and ungodly men ; and filled every 
breeze that blows with the sounds of weep- 
ing, and wailing, and bitter lamentations. 

In the plan of redemption we may be very 
sure, therefore, that — as it is designed to 
remedy man's great calamity, renovate his 
corrupt nature, and reinstate him in holiness 
and happiness in the service, glory, and en- 
joyment of God — man will become the instru- 
ment, in God's hand — made effective by God's 
working in him and with him — of proclaim- 
ing peace and good-will to men, the domin- 
ion of love, the reign of charity, and the 
universal brotherhood of the human family. 
Man will himself be made, by the power of 



TO BE CONVERTED? 29 

God through the gospel of his Son, the pat- 
tern of renovated and redeemed humanity. 
Exorcised from the spirit of selfishness, and 
possessed of the spirit of love — love to God, 
love to Christ, and love to the souls of men, 
he is ''compelled" to go forth among his 
fellows, proclaim to them "the unsearchable 
riches of Christ," tell them what God has 
done for his own soul, and as "the Spirit 
and the bride say. Come," to say "who- 
soever will may come, and take of the 
water of life freely." Man's individual good 
is thus promoted while securing the good of 
others. "Self-denial is made the cure of 
selfishness." Living for others invigorates 
and establishes the true life of man, and 
serving Christ, following him, enduring the 
cross, and counting all things but loss for 
the honour of his name and the advancement 
of his kingdom, fills the heart with peace 
and joy, and enables it to rejoice in hope of 
the glory of God. 

*'Tliis holy Tvork, this heavenly task, 
Will furnish all we ought to ask ; 
Room to deny ourselves, a road 
To bring us daily nearer God." 



30 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

THIS PRINCIPLE OF LOVE, AND LIVING FOR OTHERS, ILLUS- 
TRIOUSLY EXEMPLIFIED IN GOD, AND IN CHRIST OUR 
SAVIOUR. 

Such, assuredly, is the nature and design 
of the gospel in its operation upon the heart 
of every individual believer of it. Salvation 
is so imparted as to create in every recipient 
the desire to impart salvation to others, and 
a spirit of self-denying charity, liberality, 
and effort to extend the gospel and the king- 
dom of Christ, according to his ability, to 
every creature. 

"The blessed God," whose "glorious gos- 
pel'* it is, liveth not for himself. He is the 
parent of all good, "the Father of lights, 
from whom cometh down every good and per- 
fect gift.'* Ages before the creation of man 
he established the foundations of his future 
habitation, laid up in store-houses, all ready 
and prepared for his use, everything that 
was necessary for his future comfort, and 
beautified and adorned it with all that is 
rich, varied, and delightful to the most 
refined taste. And when man had plunged 
himself into the abyss of misery, God, who, 



TO BE CONVERTED? 31 

bad hitherto "svorked for his temporal com- 
fort, "so loved him as to give his only be- 
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
God has thus made himself known in the 
gospel as LOVE, that we may learn that love 
is the spirit by which he "brings us back 
unto God;" that "love is the fulfilling of the 
law;" that in loving him we will love also 
our fellow-men; and that if we are not actu- 
ated by a spirit of charity and benevolent 
exertion for them, the love of God cannot 
dwell in our hearts. 

Christ as the author and finisher of our 
faith, the subject and the spirit of the gospel, 
its altar-sacrifice and priest, its foundation, 
superstructure, and security, its life and 
power — Christ liveth not for himself. " He 
loved us and gave himself for us." He 
gave up the glory "which he had with the 
Father from before the foundation of the 
world," that he might come down to earth to 
"seek and to save those who were lost." He 
entered into our nature, assumed our earthly 
relations, trials and toils, endured our griefs 



32 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

and carried our sorrows, and was in all 
points tempted even as we are, that in this 
body of flesh, in this earthly life, and in this 
world of duty and of danger, he might set 
us an example, and induce us to walk in his 
steps. In a representative world, under a 
system of universal representation, in a na- 
ture eminently and in every way representa- 
tive and represented, he became the repre- 
sentative of humanity, "the second Adam," 
that ''as in Adam all died, so in Christ all," 
who become related to him by faith, "may 
be made alive." He did not his own will, but 
the will of Him that sent him. He pleas- 
ed not himself. He went about his Fa- 
ther's business. " He went about doing 
good," bearing reproach, receiving evil for 
his good done, malevolence for his kindest 
actions, and persecution, even unto blood, 
for his God-like devotion to the interests 
of humanity. Self-denial was the spirit of 
his life, self-sacrifice the character of all his 
actions, and love — living not unto himself, 
but for others, for strangers and even ene- 



TO BE CONVERTED? 33 

mies — the very element in which he lived, 
and moved, and had his being. 

CHRISTIANITY THE EMBODIMENT, AND CHRISTIANS THE LIV- 
ING MODELS, OF THIS SPIRIT OF SELF-DENYING LOVE. 

Now, what Christ was, Christianity is, and 
Christians are to be. Christianity is the 
religion of Christ ; the worship and service 
of Christ ; union to Christ by faith, w^hich is 
his own gift and the fruit of his Spirit ; 
love and devotion to Christ ; living not unto 
ourselves but unto him who redeemed us 
with his own precious blood, that we might 
be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
To be a Christian, is to live by the faith of 
the Son of God ; to live with him, to live as 
Christ lived, to do as Christ did, and to have 
the Spirit of Christ. If Christ is the vine, 
every Christian is a branch, nourished with 
his sap, growing by his life, blooming with 
his fragrance, and bearing fruit ''for the 
healing of the nations." If Christ is a 
head, every Christian is a member, acting in 
unison with that head for the accomplish- 
ment of its purposes of grace and mercy. 
4 



34 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

Christ is the divine sculptor. From him 
sprang the glorious ideal of regenerated 
man. He himself became the mould and 
type of man "upright/' man "holy, harm- 
less and undefiled ;" knowing no sin, neither 
having guile in his heart ; living among them, 
and yet "separate from sinners;" in it, and 
yet not of, the world, and unspotted by it ; 
diligent in business, and yet fervent in 
spirit, serving God, and having his affec- 
tions set on things that are above. And as 
the sculptor hands over his model to his 
workmen, that they may imitate and repro- 
duce its likeness, guiding them by his eye 
and correcting them by his skill, so does 
Christ give into the hands of his disciples 
his divine model, that under his eye, and 
the power of the Holy Ghost working in and 
with them in quickening and transforming 
energy, they may be his instruments in fash- 
ioning other hearts, and making them "new 
creatures in Christ Jesus." As we have 
borne the image, and the spirit, and the 
selfish life of the earthly Adam, we must 
also bear the image of the heavenly. The 



M 



TO BE CONVERTED? 35 

form, the features, the benevolent expres- 
sion, the tones of melting tenderness, the 
"words of love and power, the life of good- 
ness, the doing good to all men, will all be 
transferred to "the living epistle seen and 
read of all men,*' written not on tables 
of stone, but on the fleshy table of the 
heart of every one who is chosen of God, 
and changed into the image of Christ. 

The universal law of Christ is, ''if any 
man will come after me," that is, come out 
from the world and be separated from it, 
renouncing its dominion and authority, and 
becoming subject unto Christ, "he must 
deny himself/' He must renounce all claim 
to be his own property and his own master. 
He must make the will of Christ, and not 
his own will, the authority and obligation of 
his actions. He must make the word of 
Christ, and not his own opinions or the 
opinions of others, the rule and measure of 
duty. He must make love to Christ, and 
not love of self, the motive of all his actions, 
and he must make the cause of Christ, and 
the kingdom of Christ, and the glory of 



\ 



36 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

Christ in the salvation of souls, and not 
money-making, or money-hoarding, or mo- 
ney-spending, the end and object of his life. 
To human nature as it is, this is a heavy 
cross, but it must be borne ; a mortifica- 
tion of the body, but it must be suffered ; 
and a crucifixion to the world, but it must 
be offered up. Transformed by this re- 
newing of his mind, and receiving power 
and grace from Christ, the believer follows 
him, through evil and through good report, 
in doing good and abstaining from evil, 
" willing to communicate, ready to distri- 
bute, and zealous in all good works." 

The Christian is a good soldier of Jesus 
Christ, *' sworn liegeman of the cross and 
thorny crown." Christ is now the com- 
mander and leader of his soul, "the cap- 
tain of his salvation." "The field is the 
world." The banner given him to unfurl 
in the cause of truth and righteousness, is 
the banner of salvation, the gospel of the 
grace of God. This word of life he is to 
hold forth. Under this he is to march. 
After this he is to follow. For this he is to 



! 



TO BE CONVERTED? 37 

fight manfully the good fight of faith. 
Around this he is to press. To this he is to 
cling in every fiery assault of the adversary. 
And to plant this on every fortress of the 
enemy, and see its white pennons floating in 
the winds of heaven, and carrying with it 
the assurance of victory and of peace, and 
good will to the vanquished ; this, this, is 
the exultant joy of every loyal heart, as he 
shouts glory to his divine and exalted Sa- 
viour. 

Ye who your Lord's commission bear 

His way of mercy to prepare — 

Angels he calls ye — be your strife 

To lead on earth an angel's life. 

Think not of rest, though dreams be sweet, 

Start lip and ply your heavenward feet. 

Is not God's oath upon your head, 

Ne'er to sink back on slothful bed; 

Never again your loins untie. 

Nor let your torches waste and die, 

Till when the shadows thickest fall 

Ye hear your Master's midnight call? 

As the gospel knows no distinction, and 

Christ's kingdom no limit of time or place, 

or people or country, so is it with the Chris- 
4* 



i 



38 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

tian. To him there are no Horae and Foreign 
Missions in principle^ though for convenience 
and division of labour, as in the science of 
the several kingdoms of God's one universal 
dominion, he may admit the distinction. But 
in Christ there is no difference, except that of 
destitution, ignorance, barbarity, and rela- 
tive precedence in their bearing upon the 
universal, ultimate result. All such distinc- 
tions are founded in selfishness and not in 
love, in temporary and not permanent re- 
lations, in physical and not in spiritual qua- 
lities. They are not of the Father, but of the 
world, founded in man's present weaknesses 
and wants, and terminating with his present 
sublunary condition. They indicate to man 
the order but not the limits of duty ; where 
he is to begin and how he is to proceed, but 
not the boundary within which his love, and 
charity, and labour are to be circumscribed. 
Piety must begin in the individual heart. 
We must learn to show piety first at home, in 
the family, then in the church, and the commu- 
nity. But it will not, cannot stop there. If 
it does, it is selfishness under the garb of 



TO BE CONVERTED? 39 

religion. It is carnal and worldly — the good 
olive branch grafted on the stem of the origi- 
nal wild olive tree of the natural heart. 
Such a man loves his own, and in so doing 
what does he more than others? Do not even 
infidels and Christless men the same? If he 
did not do this much, would he not be "worse 
than an infidel?" and in merely doing this, 
therefore, he can be no better. This, when 
made a substitute for Christian piety, is 
hypocrisy. 

'' The gospel is the expression of God's 
love, and the believer is a man, who, filled 
with heaven's emanating kindness, becomes 
in his turn a living gospel. There is an 
ecclesiastical Christianity, and there is a 
dogmatic Christianity. The former regards 
it as the main thing to belong to a particular 
church ; the latter lays all the stress on 
maintaining certain doctrines. But the 
Christian of the Bible, while he is all this, is 
also a great deal more. By believing what 
God reveals, he becomes what God desires — 
a holy, devout, beneficent presence in socie- 
ty; a sick world's healer; a sad world's com 



40 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

forter; a sympathizer and a fellow-worker 
with the Supreme Beneficence." Remem- 
bering 

*'T]iat, throned above all height, He condescends 
To call the few who trust in him his friends ; 
That, in the Heaven of heavens, its space he deems 
Too scanty for the exertion of his beams, 
And shines, as if impatient to bestow 
Life and a kingdom upon worms below ; 
Like him the soul, thus kindled from above, 
Spreads wide her arms of universal love ; 
And, still enlarged as she receives the grace, 
Licludes creation in her close embrace." 

In other words, important as are sound- 
ness in the faith and steadfastness of principle, 
these are but the roots and stem from which 
spring love, joy, peace, long-sufi'ering, gen- 
tleness, goodness; and it is hardly uncha- 
ritable to doubt whether that man's piety be 
true who does not visit the fatherless and 
afflicted, as well as keep himself unspotted 
from the world. True piety is the life of 
God in the soul. It is a transfusion into 
the disciple of the mind of the Master. It is 
a ray of the divine gladness kindling the 



TO BE CONVERTED? 41 

human heart, converting it into a living 
sacrilSce, and filling all its circle with such a 
fragrance, glow, and brightness, as can only 
be created by fire from heaven. 

The roots and stem, therefore, without 
the fruits, are but the assumption of the name 
of Christian, without the spirit which animates 
and characterizes it. It is " faith without 
works, which is dead." It is the spirit of 
the flesh, saying like Cain, ''Am I my bro- 
ther's keeper?" It is the spirit of the self- 
righteous Pharisee, asking, "Who then is 
my neighbour?" and passing him by on the 
other side as you carry home your good 
things to your family and kindred. True 
piety is light set on a hill, unobstructed by 
any barrier, and shedding its rays far as the 
eye can reach. It is leaven which, while it 
must be cast in at some particular spot, and 
diffuse itself from it as from a centre, never 
rests until it has leavened the whole mass. 
And thus, also, is it compared to salt, which 
if it loses its power of savouring any portion 
of the fluid, is good for nothing. 



42 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

SELFISH PIETY NOT ONLY NOT CHRISTIAN, BUT ANTLCHRIS- 
TIAN. 

Piety restricted to self, or family, or kin- 
dred, or church, or country, is not therefore 
Christianity. It contradicts the gospel, in 
its provisions, promises, commands, ordinan- 
ces, obligations, and blessings. It is not the 
spirit of Christ. He knew not even his own 
mother, according to the flesh, when about 
his Father's business, and has declared, 
that whosoever doeth his will, is his mo- 
ther, and sister, and brother. While his 
body was in Judea, his heart, his prayers, 
his prospective blessings were everywhere, 
and with all who should hereafter believe on 
him, to the end of the world. While in 
order to '' fulfil all righteousness" and all 
prophecy, he personally went no farther than 
Judea, and required his disciples to begin at 
Jerusalem, and there await the outpouring 
of the Spirit, he commanded them not to 
tarry there, but to go far thence among the 
Gentiles, preaching the unsearchable riches 
of Christ to every creature. For thus it is 
written, and thus "it behoved Christ to suffer. 



TO BE CONVERTED? 43 

and to rise from the dead the third day, and 
that repentance and remission of sins should 
be preached in his name among all nations, 
beginning at Jerusalem." Christ loved men 
as men, as ''enemies," as "ungodly," as 
" without strength," "without God and with- 
out hope." To have the spirit and the love 
of Christ is, therefore, to love the souls of 
perishing men, and to the utmost of our 
ability and opportunity, to save them from 
death. This only is "the love of the spi- 
rit," with which Christ imbues every believ- 
ing heart, renewing them in the temper of 
their minds and enlarging their desires and 
efforts so as to comprehend the wants and 
woes of a perishing world. 

tliou, Tvho keep'st the key of love 

Open thy fount, eternal Dove, 
And overflow this heart of mine, 

Enlarging as it fills with thee, 

Till in one blaze of charity. 
Self and its will are lost, like motes, in light divine. 

But not only is such piety not Christian 
— it is anti-christian. Is Christ divided ? Is 
the kingdom of Christ divided against itself, 



44 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

or partitioned out into national, sectional, 
and family compartments? Can I circum- 
scribe Christ in his claims, blessings, and 
requirements, by me and mine, by white or 
black, north or south, bond or free, home or 
foreign? Nay, if I do, I am none of his. 
For if any man love father or mother, or 
family or kindred, or country, more than 
Christ ; if he do not hate them all for 
Christ's sake and the gospel's, that is, hold 
them in subordination to the higher and 
paramount claims of both, he is none of 
Christ's. He cannot be Christ's disciple. 
Christ never knew him. He is not with 
Christ, but against him. He is a rebel, a 
traitor, an unfaithful steward, a disobedient 
son, a wicked and slothful servant, hiding 
his lord's talent in a napkin, or burying it 
''like a crock of gold in a coffin." 

Christ did not leave this matter to mere 
precept and example. He has made it im- 
possible for any man who is not wilfully 
blind, to believe a lie so palpable, and a 
delusion so gross, as that a piety whose 
spirit, principle, prayers, sacrifices, and ef- 



TO BE CONVERTED? 45 

forts, are limited by home, or church, or 
country, is Christianity. He has done this 
by identifying himself with a perishing world, 
and with the poor and miserable, and blind 
and naked, and outcast, wherever and who- 
soever, they be. Like as a father is repre- 
sented by every member of his family, and 
a prince by every one of his subjects, and 
a government, whether municipal, state, or 
national, by every one of its citizens, so that 
what is done for the one is done for the 
other, and what is done against the one is 
regarded, and resented, as done against the 
other ; so it is with Christ as he stands 
related to all those who are " perishing for 
lack of knowledge." The heathen are his 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth his possession. In them we see him. 
By them is he represented, and brought 
within the reach of our neglect or kindness. 
And according as we do unto them, we do 
likewise unto him. 

We have our younger brothers, too, 

Tlie poor, tlie outcast, and the trodden down, 

Left fatherless on earth to pine for bread ! 

5 



46 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

They are a himgered for our love and care ; 
It is their spirits that are famishing, 
And our dear Father, in his testament, 
Bequeathed them to us as our dearest trust. 
Wherefore we shall give up a strait account. 
Woe if we have forgotten them, and left 
Those souls that might have grown in fear and love — 
Left them to feel their birthright but a curse. 

But as Christ is represented in the mute 
objects of charity and compassion, so is he 
also in the agents of his bounty, to whom 
he has imparted gifts, graces, and the gold 
and silver which are the Lord's. In the 
one Christ represents himself passively; in 
the other, he is represented actively. In 
the one he is the object and the recipient of 
charity ; in the other, the agent and the 
donor. In the one class of representatives 
we see his resources, his power, his muniiScent 
benevolence, his free, sovereign, and disin- 
terested compassion. In the other class we 
behold — as John did in the earthly mother, 
to whom Christ directed him while on the 
cross, saying, ''Behold thy mother'' — the 
deep misery of humanity, its need of salva- 
tion and a Saviour, its utter hopelessness, its 



1 



TO BE CONVERTED? 47 

inability and indisposition even to its own 
spiritual good, and the absolute necessity 
that, in order to be saved, man must be 
drawn with the cords of a man, melted by 
kindness, unprejudiced by love, and thus 
made willing to come to Jesus. In every 
Christian, the world sees — expects, and 
ought to see — one who exhibits the traits 
and temper of Christ — who feels that he is 
in Christ's stead — who acts as he thinks 
Christ would have acted if in his circum- 
stances — and who does unto others what he 
believes Christ would have rendered unto 
them, and not what is dictated by his own 
self-interest. In all the trying conditions 
of humanity Christ lived. He knows well 
what they are, and what they imply, for he 
has felt the same, "though without sin.'' He 
is able to sympathize both with the suflferer, 
and with the agents of his intended bounty. 
He knows the individual, personal worthless- 
ness of the one, — so far as any claim of 
merit or desert can reach, — and his unrequi- 
ting and ungrateful spirit. And he knows 
the unselfish, disinterested labour of love 



48 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

required on the part of his servants. On 
this very account, however, does Christ 
regard that labour as love to himself, and 
lay up for it a grateful recompense in the 
world to come, 

For 'mid the tlirong of selfish hearts untrue, 
His glad eye rests upon his faithful few. 

This is no figurative representation. It is 
a plain and unquestionable verity, in con- 
formity to all human principles of equity 
and of action, and the proclaimed rule, not 
only for testing the sincerity of our present 
faith, and hope, and love, and charity, but 
for that judgment in the court of heaven 
by which the future destiny of every man 
will be determined. (Matt, xxv.) No man, 
therefore, can have any difficulty in under- 
standing what is the will of Christ, the spirit 
of Christ, and the command of Christ, since 
he has identified himself with his kingdom, 
and made our faith, and love, and obedience 
co-extensive with the gospel — that is, with 
the entire brotherhood of humanity. 

Ah ! wherefore persecute ye me, 
'Tis hard, ye so in love should be 
With your own endless woe. 



1 



TO BE CONVERTED? 49 

Know, though at God's right hand I live, 
I feel each wound ye reckless give 
To the least soul below. 

I in your care these souls have left, 
Not willing ye should be bereft 

Of waiting on your Lord. 
The meanest offering ye can make — 
A drop of water for love's sake, 

In heaven, be sui'e, is stored. 

Still as we walk our earthly round, 
Still may the echo of that sound 
Be in our memory stored: 
Christians! behold your happy state, 
Christ is in these, who round you wait; 
Make much of your dear Lord. 

The conclusion, therefore, is irresistibly 
plain, that every man who believes the 
Bible and in Christ, must believe and feel 
that it is his first and paramount duty, as a 
Christian, to identify himself with Christ 
and his kingdom, and to live so as by his in- 
strumentality to extend that kingdom, as far 
as his means and opportunity will enable 
him. Faith in Christ will shed abroad in his 
soul love to Christ, and this will constrain 
him to live so as to please, and honour, and 
5* 



50 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

glorify Christ, by obeying his command- 
ments, imitating his example, and labouring 
for the salvation of a world lying in wicked- 
ness. 

Wouldst thou the life of souls discern ? 
Nor human wisdom, nor diyine, 

Helps thee bv aught besides to learn; 
LoTE is life's only sign. 

The spring of the regenerate heart, 
The pulse, the glow, of every part. 
Is the true lore of Christ our Lord, 
As man embraced, as God adored. 

The heart which loves the Lord aright, 
No soul of man can worthless find, 

Ail will be precious in his sight, 
Since Christ on all hath shined. 

THE EXTENSION OF GOD's KINGDOM HAS ALWAYS BEEN A 
TRUST FOR WHICH MAN HAS BEEN RESPONSIBLE. 

Such is God's instrumentality for the 
universal establishment of the kingdom of 
Christ and the universal diffusion of the 
knowledge of salvation. Men are put in 
trusty and made responsible for this work, 
and to them will pertain the glory or the 
shame, the honour or disgrace, the victory or 



TO BE CONVERTED? 51 

defeat, the recompense or retribution, since 
in God's stead they are made ambassadors 
and witnesses, and co-workers with him. 

Such has ever been God's plan. Salva- 
tion for the world, through the knowledge 
and belief of the good news of a divine in- 
carnate Saviour, has been the trust put 
into the hands of the Church, that is, of the 
people of God, from the very beginning of 
the world. The fulfilment of this trust was 
made man's great work and business upon 
earth. For this was a dispensation of good- 
ness and mercy vouchsafed to him, through 
the mediation of Christ, and the long-sufi*er- 
ing forbearance of God. He pursues other 
work, and eats, drinks, marries, and is given 
in marriage, that he may live; but he lives 
that he may work out his own salvation and 
the salvation of others, and thus honour, 
obey, and enjoy God. To this work is man 
consecrated and life devoted. The "seed of 
the woman," from the beginning, recognized 
and received this trust. The echoes of their 
loud and earnest warnings and appeals to 
the unbelieving world around them, come to 



52 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

US through distant ages, and over the waters 
of the floodj crying, "Behold the Lord com- 
eth with ten thousand of his saints, to execute 
judgment upon all, and to convince all that 
are ungodly among them, of all their un- 
godly deeds which they have ungodly com- 
mitted, and of all their hard speeches which 
ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 
And when God's people waxed faint-hearted 
and worldly, and that voice died away amid 
the sounds of merriment and the hum of 
business, the flood came and swept an un- 
faithful and unbelieving generation from the 
earth. 

The gospel for the world was then put in 
trust with Noah and his seed, and afterwards 
with Abraham and his seed, in whom all 
the families of the earth were to be blest; 
and then a single nation was chosen, edu- 
cated, corrected, and purified in the fires of 
persecution from idolatrous tendencies, that 
they might be God's faithful witnesses in the 
earth. And as the descendants of Noah 
and Abraham were dispersed abroad over 
the earth that they might carry with them, 



TO BE CONVERTED? 53 

and sow, the incorruptible seed of divine 
truth to take root and flourish in all lands, 
so also when the Jews failed to execute their 
mission, they were peeled and scattered, and 
thus constrained to bear the Scriptures and 
the knowledge of a Saviour into the most dis- 
tant climes. So long, and so far, as they 
were faithful stewards and evangelists, they 
prospered, and entered most prominently 
into the history of the world. But when 
selfishness and self-seeking pride became 
their ruling principle, and they refused, as a 
people, to become the heralds of their incar- 
nate Saviour, the body died. They became 
barren and corrupt, until finally the nation 
was annihilated and became extinct, broken 
ofi' and severed from the good olive tree, 
instead of being developed into full matu- 
rity, beauty and fruitfulness by union to 
Christ Jesus. 

This trust of the gospel was therefore 
taken from them and given to Christians who 
are of the seed of Abraham, and to whom is 
now imparted the high calling, the glorious 
privilege, and the paramount and trans- 



64 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

cendent of all duties, that of conveying the 
gospel and extending the kingdom of Christ 
to every creature. This duty comprehends, 
includes and inspirits every other Christian 
work, and is therefore enjoined upon believ- 
ers in the one expressive and final com- 
mand of the departing Saviour, and reit- 
erated and enforced by his subsequent com- 
munications from heaven. It is made by 
him the basis of success, the law of progress, 
the source of life, permanency and prosper- 
ity, the condition of his promise, presence 
and divine eflSciency; the test of obedience; 
the measure of love ; the way of self-impart- 
ing peace and joy; and the rule of future 
recompense. Recognition of this principle, 
adoption of this spirit, living by this rule, 
and consecration to this work, are therefore 
essential to Christian character and life, to 
faith, love, loyalty, obedience, spirituality 
and happiness. How can a man believe the 
gospel and not say "come" to those who are 
perishing for lack of its knowledge, which he 
is required to proclaim ? How can a man 
receive Christ and enter into union with him, 



TO BE CONVERTED? 55 

and not desire to draw all men unto liim? 
How can a man imbibe the Spirit of Christ 
and not travail in soul for the salvation of 
all men? How can a man bring his will 
into unison with the will of Christ by pray- 
ing always with all prayer, "Thy kingdom 
come, thy will be done on earth as it is 
in heaven,'' and not feel the extension of 
that kingdom and the consummation of his 
"will that all men should be saved and come 
to the knowledge of the truth,'' to be his 
highest and holiest purpose? How can a 
man be the servant of Christ and be sent by 
him into the world, even as the Father sent 
him into the world, and not live and labour 
for the promotion of that great work of which 
Christ laid the foundation, and which he 
has hired them as labourers to carry on? 
How can a man honour the Lord with his 
siibstance, and prove that his love to Christ 
is greater than his love of property and 
wealth, and not willingly communicate and 
cheerfully distribute it to the furtherance of 
the gospel, and to the support of Christ's 



56 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

ministers and cause? How can a man love 
Christ and show gratitude to him, and not 
endeavour to secure for him the heathen 
for his inheritance and the uttermost parts 
of the earth for his possession ? And how 
can a man be animated by the love of the 
Spirit, and not conspire in his great mis- 
sion, that of convincing the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment? 

Largely tliou givest, gracious Lord, 
Largely thy gifts should be restored; 
Freely thou givest, and thy word 

Is ''freely give" — 
He only who forgets to hoard, 

Has learned to live. 

Pastors and elders, people, all 
Should feel the showers of mercy fall, 
And starting at the Redeemer's call, 

Give what he gave. 
Till their high deeds the world appal. 

And sinners save. 

And as it is with individual Christians so 
it is with churches. What is fundamental to 
one, both as to principle, life, duty, and 
prosperity, is essential to the other. A 



TO BE CONVERTED? 57 

church is made up of individual Christians, 
and is under obligation to believe, profess 
and do, what is required of each and all 
its members. The only difference is in the 
increased measure and weight with which 
the pressure of the powers of the world to 
come, and the divine command with its 
solemn trusty rest upon churches. If every 
Christian is to be a light, the church is a 
luminary. If every Christian is a workman, 
the church is a combination of labourers 
under efficient master workmen. If every 
Christian is a soldier, the church is a pha- 
lanx, with its bold, daring and gallant lead- 
ers. If an individual Christian is weak, or 
poor, or uninfluential, the church is propor- 
tionably strong, competent, and powerful. 
And if, therefore, the recognition of the gos- 
pel as a trusty and the extension of the 
kingdom of Christ as the primary duty of 
life,* is essential to the character, progress, 
and prosperity of every individual Christian, 
much more is this the law of every church. 

* Matthew vi. 31. 



58 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

ACTIVE, SELF-DENYING AND LIBERAL CO-OPERATION IN THE 
CAUSE OF CHRIST, NOT INDIFFERENT, BUT ESSENTIAL TO 
CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES. 

How, plain it is, and yet, oh ! how little is 
it understood and felt, that Christian ac- 
tivity, and sacrifice, and contributions for 
the cause of Christ, are not things expe- 
dient, important and beneficial merely; not 
what a Christian is at liberty to do, or, if 
inconvenient, not to do; not matters which 
depend upon our ability, or means, or sup- 
posed capacity. They are elements of Chris- 
tian character and life ; the fruits and evi- 
dences by which the Spirit witnesses that 
we are born of God ; acts of worship ; ac- 
ceptable sacrifices unto God; and means 
ordained by him for the spiritual good of his 
people and his own glory through them. 
They are not acts of charity, the promptings 
of impulse. They involve the integrity 
and growth of Christian character. They 
are invariable and universal. Like faith, 
repentance, prayer, and praise, they will be 
manifested by every Christian, and by every 
church according to that which they have 



TO BE CONVERTED? 59 

and are. Inactive, selfish and uncharitable 
they cannot be, for ''it is not to be pre- 
sumed," as has been said, ''that God gives 
an individual or a people a soul niggardly 
from meanness, parsimonious from covetous- 
ness/' These acts and exercises of Chris- 
tian life must, therefore, in all cases, be de- 
veloped according to our resources. No 
Christian liveth unto himself. No church 
liveth unto itself. If they do, they will 
dwindle, languish, and like the heath in the 
desert that knows no water, remain stunted 
and dwarfed, and finally perish.* 

"^ **The use of our property furnishes one of the most 
striking developments of the heart. We are bound, 
therefore, to make use of it to show our love for God — 
our attachment to his cause. It is the most efficient 
method within our reach of declaring the glory of God 
to a world of sinners. It shows the subjection of our 
selfishness, and the triumph of the Spirit of grace in 
the heart, and over the life. It brings to view, as no- 
thing else can, the heaven-born principle of benevo- 
lence in its control of human conduct. It shows the 
transforming power, and the unspeakable beauty and 
loveliness of the religion of the cross, and speaks 
strongly to the hearts and consciences of men, to turn 
unto God, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance." 



60 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

And IS not this the reason why so many 
Christians and churches do actually live at 
such a poor dying rate, so cold and languid, 
so barren and unprofitable ? 

A fouler yision yet, churches of light — 
Light without love, glare on the aching sight. 

They look to themselves, not to Christ. 
They consider their own things, not the 
things that are his. Like the fearful and 
unbelieving sinner, they are seeking for 
peace, and prosperity, and blessing, not in 
the way of cheerful and confiding obedience, 
but as direct gifts from God. They can do 
little, and therefore they do nothing. They 
can give but a small sum, and, therefore, 
give none at all. Their influence is limited, 
and therefore they roll it up carefully and 
hide it in the earth. They cannot grow 
and strengthen and mature because they are 
"always learning, and never come to the 
knowledge of the truth," always desiring 
and never ''doing the will of God," and, in 
so doinffj receiving his promised blessing and 
assurance. They sit cold and shivering, lean 
and hunger-bitten, rubbing their hands to- 



TO BE CONVERTED? 61 

gether and wishing they were warm, instead 
of rising up, and invigorating and warming 
their hearts by acts and exercises of Chris- 
tian charity and well-doing. May He who is 
to dead bones, dead bodies, dead hearts, dead 
souls, dead families, and dead churches, ''the 
Resurrection and the Life," breathe upon us 
the word of his life-inspiring, love-enkin- 
dling and power-awakening Spirit, and from 
these dry mouldering bones, whitening in the 
sun, raise up children to perfect his praise, 
and an army of self-sacrificing soldiers to 
fight valiantly for the cause of truth and 
righteousness. 

And so it ever will and must be. He that 
liveth to himself shall not prosper, and can- 
not be happy, and that church which liveth 
to itself shall not receive the blessing of the 
Lord. The eternal law of God's government 
in nature, providence and grace, will so de- 
termine it. "Faith without works is dead." 
*'Tohim that hath shall be given, and he 
shall have more abundantly, while from him 
that hath not shall be taken away even that 
which he seemeth to have. He that soweth 
6* 



&i BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he 
that soweth bountifully shall reap also boun- 
tifully. And God is able to make all grace 
abound, toward you, that ye, always having 
all-suflSciency in all things, may abound in 
every good work." 

What blind infatuation, what deplorable 
ignorance is it, then, for any Christian, min- 
ister, or church, to plead weakness, feeble- 
ness, poverty, and manifold necessities 
and wants, as a reason for living in inactivity, 
forgetful of this unalterable relation between 
sowing and reaping, labour and recompense, 
liberality and reward. Self-denial, sacrifice, 
and the contribution of our property accord- 
ing as God hath prospered us (not grudg- 
ingly, for the Lord loveth a cheerful giver,) 
are made by Christ essential to our Christian 
hope and happiness. The poor widow gave 
but a farthing, but it was ''all that she 
had," and she gave it and was blessed. The 
churches in Macedonia out of their deep 
poverty abounded unto the riches of liberal- 
ity, and were blessed. And so must every 
Christian and every church give, and labour, 



1 

I 



TO BE CONVERTED? 68 

and pray for the kingdom of Christ and the 
salvation of the world, if they would receive 
the full blessedness of the gospel. There is 
not a member of our churches in this coun- 
try that could not spare something and lay 
it by in store, weekly, for this divine cause. 
There is not a member, in any of our church- 
es, that could not increase, or double, or 
multiply an hundred fold, what he now 
offers to Christ, if he really believed that 
in so doing he would please him, profit him- 
self, and bring a rich return of blessing to 
his own heart. There is not a minister who 
could not so present this matter to his peo- 
ple as to lead the weakest and most impov- 
erished congregation in our land to feel that 
it was a duty, a privilege, and a blessing to 
give, and to give freely, in proportion to 
their means and other expenditures, to the 
work of the Lord. And there are thousands 
of our largest and most liberal givers, who, 
were their minds thoroughly imbued with 
the conviction that they are agents, stew- 
ards, and trustees for Christ's kingdom and 
gospel, and that the blessing comes far more 



64 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

in giving than in receiving or increasing 
gain, would increase their contributions 
and their efforts, in some cases thirty, in 
some sixty, in some an hundred fold. 

ALL CAN DO SOMETHING. 

*'Why should not all the godly member- 
ship of the Church take their share, accord- 
ing to their varying capacities and opportuni- 
ties, in this blessed work, some in one way, 
and some in another? If I cannot speak, I 
can carry with me a tract, or perhaps I can 
read to those who cannot read for themselves. 
Methinks that the churches will never be in 
a sound condition until somewhat of such a 
state of things be realized — till this develop- 
ment in the application of doctrine to prac- 
tice is realized — till the membership of our 
congregations become not only hearers of 
the word, but, in the peculiar gospel sense, 
doers also; for surely Paganism itself can 
scarcely be so hateful to a righteous God, as 
the barren orthodoxy of mere abstract be- 
lief, and idle talk, and unproductive pro- 
fession. Ah I were this better spirit to pre- 
vail more widely through all Protestant 



TO BE CONVERTED? 65 

churches — the spirit that would prompt men 
to be not receivers only, but dispensers also 
of what they had received — the spirit that 
would lead all ecclesiastical bodies to make 
the doing of some active work for the Lord, 
in his own vineyard, as indispensable a con- 
dition of church membership as the abstract 
soundness of a creed, and the outward con- 
sistency of moral life and conduct, what a 
strange and happy revolution would soon be 
effected ! how soon would iofidelity and home- 
heathenism be cast down ! what a new spirit 
of ennobling self-denial would be evoked ! 
what a spirit of large-heartedness, which 
would flow forth in copious streams in behalf 
of a perishing world ! Were this realized, 
we might then suppose that the dawn of mil- 
lennial glory was upon us. But, alas ! alas ! 
though the horizon seemed already redden- 
ing with the dawn, the churches of Christ 
are still mostly drowsy and fast asleep. Ah ! 
it is this that saddens my own spirit. Of 
the cause of Christ I have never desponded, 
and never will. It will advance till the 
whole earth be filled with his glory. He 



66 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

will accomplish it, too, through the instru- 
mentality of churches and individual men. 
But he is not dependent on any particular 
church or men. Yea, if any of these prove 
slothful or negligent, he may in sore judg- 
ment remove their candlestick, or pluck the 
stars out of the ecclesiastical firmament.''* 

THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO SECURE PROSPERITY AND PEACE, 
HERE AND HEREAFTER. 

Liberality, activity, and devotion to the 
cause of Christ, is the true way to personal 
prosperity and peace, and to the favour and 
blessing of God. In the kingdom of hea- 
ven, as in God's moral government, obe- 
dience and reward are correlatives, and in- 
separably conjoined, even when apparently 
divided. In loving and living to God, we 
truly love and live to ourselves, and promote 
our own happiness here and hereafter. We 
are under obligations to seek and to secure 
our best interests, however, in that way 
alone which God has pointed out. A right- 
eous, enlightened, and sanctified love of 

^ Dr. Duff. 



TO BE CONVERTED? 67 

ourselves, is made the measure of our 
love to others. A man not only may 
but must love himself. This he must do, by 
acquiring a perfect knowledge of his rela- 
tions to God, and his law, and of the para- 
mount importance of the honour, glory, and 
kingdom of God, and of what is spiritual and 
eternal, over all bodily and temporal inte- 
rests. Whatever pertains to the salvation 
of our own soul, its sanctification and growth 
in grace, and its everlasting felicity, w^e 
are under primary obligations to work out, 
according to the will of God. And as this is 
to be done by activity, sacrifice, service, and 
liberality, in the cause of Christ's universal 
reign and triumph, as surely as by reading 
the Scriptures, by prayer, and praise, every 
Christian is bound to be as faithful, as 
hearty, as zealous and exemplary in the for- 
mer, as in the latter. This is essential to 
the right and required love of self, to per- 
sonal salvation, and to our own individual 
Christian character, hope, happiness, and 
heavenly recompense. It is only in this way 
a man can truly love God, be made a parta- 



68 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

ker of the divine nature and of the divine 
benevolence, overcome the spirit of worldly 
selfishness, which is idolatry, subdue all self- 
will and all self-opinionated prejudices to the 
authority of God's will, as made known in 
his word, and lay hold firmly of eternal 
life, secure *'the pearl of great price," 
*'the treasure hid in the field," ''lay up 
treasure in heaven," gain "an ahundant 
entrance into the everlasting kingdom," 
make sure of "an eternal weight of glory," 
"reap abundantly," "be great in the kingdom 
of heaven," "build upon the foundation" of 
a good hope in Christ Jesus, "gold, and sil- 
ver, and precious stones" that shall abide 
for ever, transport his riches to heaven, be 
followed by his good works in their ever- 
during results, shine forth as a star of 
brilliant glory in the firmament of heaven, 
and having well and faithfully employed his 
talents for the glory of his Lord and Mas- 
ter, receive a crown of righteousness, and be 
applauded with the welcoming gratulation, 
"Well done, good and faithful servant, thou 
hast been faithful over a few things, I will 



TO BE CONVERTED? 69 

make thee ruler over many things; enter 
thou into the joy of thy Lord." 

TMs shall take thine hand, and lead 

Thy steps to find thy Saviour in his poor; 

Yea, thou shalt find him in the cry of all ; 

And Lazarus, who lieth at thy door, 

Hath friends above who walk the heavenly floor, 

And he shall sue for thee, and thou shalt find 

That thine own prayers gain wings and readier soar, 

No more blown prostrate by the wandering wind. 

And light unknown before, shall touch thine eyelids blind, 

Such in the blessed courts that are above. 

Within the living centre of all space, 

'Mid their blest companies shall find a place 

Where God himself reveals his glorious face. 

This assuredly is the only way in which 
a man can work out his own salvation, 
which is his one great business here below, 
by living, labouring and praying, by giving 
and sacrificing so as to secure permanent and 
everlasting riches, "where neither moth nor 
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through and steal.'' 

And yet, under the delusion of laying up 
treasure for children and friends — a tempta- 
tion and a snare to drown them in perdition 
7 



70 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

and in sloth, and in prodigality and vice — 
oh, how do men, yes, even Christian men, 
live poor, and meanly, and niggardly, and 
die poor, and go into eternity poor, with 
few or no friends to welcome them, no works 
to follow them, no treasure exported before 
them, and no inheritance invested in heaven? 
Yes, look around the church of which we 
are each members, and of how many may we 
say, as has been strikingly said, here is an 
acquaintance of ours, and he has been spend- 
ing the energy of a very good understanding, 
of exceedingly strong will, or well formed 
habits, in conducting business and making 
a fortune. He owes no man anything. He 
assists the struggling poor. And he says, I 
have invested something for every one of my 
children. But what, we may ask such an one, 
have you invested for yourself? You ought 
not, with all your love for your children, to 
think only of them. What do you propose 
to invest for yourself? This is the question, 
and it is a business one. You have but one 
way of investing money permanently. You 
may invest it in houses, or in lands, or in 



TO BE CONVERTED? 71 

banks, but when the great fire comes that 
will burn all that up, and your beautiful 
mansion will be no more to the flames than 
the dust you tread on, what portion of your 
property is invested for yourself, and will re- 
appear after the fire, to enrich you for ever? 
None, but what you have given up to God — 
literally and absolutely none but what you 
have consecrated to the Saviour — what you 
have expended for the poor — what you have 
given out of love to Christ and love to fellow 
men. This is in Christ's hands, and all and 
only this, and he will remind you of it, and 
show it to you in another shape at the last 
day. Oh, what a word that is, ^'Make to 
yourselves friends of the mammon of unright- 
eousness; that, when ye fail, they may 
receive you into everlasting habitations.'' 

Thus thy Tvorks may pass before 
AVaiting thee, — a blessed store, — 
In their number, weight, and measure, 
Laid up in enduring treasure. 

These earthly friends, for whom you live 
and toil and hoard, cannot procure a habita- 
tion. They cannot even prepare a habitation ; 



72 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

they can give no title to a habitation. All 
this is done only by the free grace of your 
Father through the merit of your Saviour and 
Redeemer. The title being thus given, and the 
house being prepared for you by Christ, make 
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, 
that they may receive you into everlasting 
habitations. A wonderful thing it is to take 
a cold shilling into my hand and turn that 
cold piece of metal into a friend, who, when 
the Lord shall lift up my head on that day, 
will be there to receive me, and bid me wel- 
come to the land of rest. None of us would 
like to die poor. Who then is he that dies rich ? 
That man dies rich, and only that man, who, 
when he leaves behind him a little or more, 
or nothing, has before him a treasure laid 
up in heaven. Who dies poor? He that, 
whatever he leaves behind him, has nothing 
laid up before him. He dies poor. Thus 
do multitudes pass away " with nothing but 
the avenging memories of lost opportunities 
to follow them, angels of mercy struck down 
here to rise in the judgment against their 
murderers." 



TO BE CONVERTED? 73 

NO MAN LIVETH OR DIETH UNTO HIMSELF. 

No man therefore liveth to himself; the 
law of universal nature, the law of man's own 
being, the law of providence, and the law of 
the kingdom of heaven, alike forbid and pre- 
vent it. And yet these laws equally require, 
as we have seen, every man to love himself, 
to live for himself, and to seek and secure 
the highest good of his own entire and per- 
manent being. There is here a divine para- 
dox but no contradiction. "He that findeth 
his life (in living for himself) shall lose it, 
and he that loseth his life (by denying him- 
self) for my sake, shall find it." "For who- 
Boever will save his life (from this self-deny- 
ing course) will lose it, and whosoever will 
lose his life (of personal ease, indulgence and 
aggrandizement) for my sake, shall find it. 
For what is a man profited if he shall gain 
(for his present, sensual, and temporal life) 
the whole world and lose his soul, or what 
will a man give in exchange for his soul? 
And he that taketh not his cross, and follow- 
eth after me, is not worthy of me. For the 
Son of Man shall come in the glory of his 
7* 



74 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

Father, with his angels, and then shall he 
reward every man according to his works/' 
In the Christian, the present natural and 
sinful life of selfishness is dead, being cruci- 
fied with Christ. He has denied this self by 
the power given to him by Christ to be- 
come a son of God. This life, therefore, 
he loses, and finds the life of faith, and 
love, and consecration to God in Christ. 
The life that he now lives, therefore, he 
lives by the faith of the Son of God, who loved 
him and gave himself for him. "I live," 
says the Christian, "but not I. It is my Be- 
loved that liveth in me. I love myself, not 
with my own love, but with the love of my 
Beloved, who loveth me. I love not myself 
in myself, but myself in him and him in me." 

Nor time, nor place, nor chance, nor death can bow 

My least desire unto the least remove ; 
He's firmly mine by oath; I his by vow; 

And knit we are by strongest bonds of love: 
He's mine by water ; I am his by wine ; 
Thus I my best Beloved's am; thus he is mine. 

He is my altar; I his holy place; 

I am his guest; and he my living food; 
I'm his by penitence; he mine by grace; 

I'm his by purchase; he is mine by blood; 



TO BE CONVERTED? 75 

He's my directing helm ; and I his vine; 
Thus I my best Beloved's am; thus he is mine. 

He gives me wealth ; I give him all my vows ; 

I give him songs; he gives me length of days; 
With wreaths of grace he crowns my conquering bi ows ; 

And I his temples with a crown of praise 
Which he accepts; an everlasting sign 
That I my best Beloved's am ; that he is mine. 

Feeling thus, the Christian lives no longer 
unto self but unto Christ, and yet, never- 
theless, in living unto Christ, and in yielding 
body, soul, and spirit, wife, children, houses 
and lands, as a living and loving sacrifice 
unto Christ and the interests of his kingdom, 
he secures his own salvation, his own peace, 
and joy, and happiness, the presence and 
blessing of God in all he does and on all he 
loves. ''For every one who hath forsaken 
(the selfish appropriation, and holds in trust, 
and for the glory of Christ) houses, or breth- 
ren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 
or children, or lands, for my name's sake, 
shall receive an hundred fold, and shall in- 
herit everlasting life.'' 

For any man to live to himself is mon- 



u 



BY WHOM IS THE TTORLD 



strously sinful, and for any professing Chris- 
tian to do so, is to exaggerate such guilt by 
the most flagrant insult, hypocrisy and fraud. 
It is the most daring presumption and rebel- 
lion against the glorious majesty and great- 
ness, the perfect holiness, infinite all-suffi- 
ciency and goodness, and the absolute power 
and supremacy of that divine Lord and Mas- 
ter, to whom he has sworn allegiance. It is 
ingratitude black as hell, minified with rebel- 
lion daring as that of devils, against Him to 
whom we owe ourselves, and all that we are 
or have, or hope, inasmuch as it takes the 
very members, faculties, talents, and oppor- 
tunities, which are his — redeemed, regene- 
rated and consecrated by him, for his own 
service and glory — and employs them, like 
the unfaithful servants, for our own selfish pur- 
poses. The selfish man, with a heart, as has 
been said, no bigger than his coffin, just large 
enough to hold himself, is like those creeping 
insects which having no object around which 
to twine, cleave to the dust, encircle them- 
selves, and there, by their rank luxuriance and 
unwholesome smell, rot and die. He destroys 



TO BE CONVERTED? 7T 

himself. SeljBshness itself perishes, ex- 
hausted by its own excess. 

Oh what indignity, what wickedness 
against a jealous God is this! But such 
selfishness is not only suicidal. It gains no- 
thing! It can only treasure up indignation 
and wrath against the day of wrath. After 
all, no man really lives unto himself. He 
may pervert and prostitute the being and 
the powers entrusted to him. He may live, 
and labour, and eat, and drink, as he thinks, 
for himself; but he lives for others and for 
God. So are man, and society, and nature 
constituted by God, that while man labours 
for himself, and the distinctions of pro- 
perty become a stimulus to exertion, he is 
filling up his place in the comprehensive plan 
and benefitting his species. Of all the earth, 
he can possess at most but little, and enjoy 
but little, and for a very little time. All his 
labour and strength, all he makes and accu- 
mulates, and invests and hoards, and spends, 
he does for others. His life, his spirit, his 
principles, his conduct, are all acting upon, 
and impressing and influencing, others. For 



78 BY WHOM IS TEE TTOKLD 



] 



good or for evil, for weal or woe, for salva- 
tion or damnation, he is living for others. 
Soon he dies; his gr^sp relaxes; his titles 
are all extinguished ; his name and his me- 
mory rot like his body, and are forgotten. 
The place of business, the rounds of duty, 
the haunts of pleasure, the home of selfish 
indulgence, the bank, the courts, the ex- 
change, know him no more for ever, and 
he has no further interest in anything that 
is done under the sun. 

No man, therefore, can live unto himself. 
Equally but still more fearfully true is it 
that "no man dieth unto himself." He dies 
under this law of universal being, and of Chris- 
tianity, and under its penalty. He dies as 
he lives. He dies to all further enjoyment 
of this world and this life, and these means 
and opportunities of extending the gospel 
and kino:dom of Christ, and of savino^ souls 
from death. He dies to meet that judgment 
which is after death, and as he has here 
sown the wind of his own selfish, cove- 
tous and indolent indulgence, he reaps the 



TO BE CONVERTED? 79 

■whirlwind of sorrow and disappointment, and 
everlasting regret — ''for there is no repent- 
ance in the grave." Whether we have loved 
God or have loved self, 

These are the mirrors wherein souls are seen; 
These are the books ; on this heaven's scale depends ; 
Judgment announced to the eternal years. 

Man can do nothing of himself but sin, 
and nothing that is right or acceptable in 
the sight of God ; and when by grace he 
does all he ought to do, to the utmost of his 
ability, he is an unprofitable servant, sinful 
and imperfect. The acceptance of his ser- 
vices and gifts, and the entrustment to his 
hands of "the high calling" of being a ser- 
vant unto God, for the benefit of the perish- 
ing world, is the gift of Christ's infinite good- 
ness; and the recompense of reward with 
which it is followed, the bestowment of his 
free, sovereign, and unmerited munificence. 
But this only makes selfishness and disobe- 
dience, and eye-service, and love of family 
and friends, while there is mean niggardli- 
less towards Christ's cause and kingdom, the 



80 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

more disgracefully foul and abominable in 
the judgment of heaven and earth. 

OUR CHURCHES AND CHURCH MEMBERS MUST DO MORE. 

Brethren, what is to be done ? Something 
must be done. We cannot remain as we are. 
The best of our ministers, and churches, and 
members, but feebly realize and act accord- 
ing to the great law of living unto others, 
unto Christ, and for the salvation of the 
world. Many, however, feel, or do nothing 
to show that they love Christ, or value his 
promised presence, by keeping his last great 
and all comprehending command. Oh, it 
is incredible to believe, and beyond measure 
humiliating to tell, one-third of our ministers, 
elders, churches, and members, give not the 
evidence, by a single reported dollar^ of any 
recognition of their duty as pure, Christ- 
loving disciples, to cooperate in the procla- 
mation of the gospel, and the extension of 
the kingdom of Christ to every creature. 
These principles were fully and ably pre- 
sented by our last General Assembly, and 



TO BE CONVJIRTED? 81 

wisely urged upon the practical considera- 
tion of our Presbyteries, and enforced upon 
our church sessions generally.* 

WHAT CAN BE DONE ? 

But still, the great practical hinderance 
remains, and that is, to get these views and 
principles into the minds and hearts of those 
ministers and churches who seem to take 
their ease, to fold their hands, and go 
asleep in Zion, and who neither read, nor 
hear, nor feel the power and cogency of 
these truths. And to reach this ultimate 
end, what other method is there left to the 
Church, than for each Presbytery to adopt 
the course of voluntary and mutual inter- 
change of pulpits, so that brethren, appoint- 
ed by Presbytery, and clothed with its au- 
thority, may kindly, but faithfully, and as 
often and long as may be necessary, stir up 
the hearts and minds of all who call upon 
the Lord Jesus, to the remembrance of their 
relation to him and to his kingdom, and of 

^ See the Report and Resolutions on Systematic Col- 
lections, added as Note B. 

8 



82 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

the inseparable connection established be- 
tween obedience, activity, and liberality, and 
their own spiritual life, maturity, power, and 
progress. 

Here then, is something we can do. It is 
simple, scriptural, unexpensive, in accord- 
ance with our spirit and principles as a 
Church, and implied in the injunctions of our 
General Assembly. We have the gospel. 
It is given to us in trust for the heathen and 
^'the uttermost parts of the earth,'' as "light 
to enlighten the gentiles." Of this trust 
every Christian, still more every deacon, 
more emphatically still every elder, still 
more solemnly and responsibly every minis- 
ter, and — to an extent which combines in 
itself the responsibility and the ability of all 
these severally — every church is a steward, 
who will be honoured and recompensed in 
proportion as they are found faithful. This 
truth is power — '''the power of God to every 
.one" that "receives it into a good and hon- 
est heart," and whose "faith works by love." 
To impart this truth, therefore, and to make 
it effectual in the hearts of our brethren, who 



TO BE CONVERTED? 83 

either misconceive or but partially believe it, 
is a portion of the very trust and agency com- 
mitted to us. In love to them, in love to 
the Church of God, whose honour, and influ- 
ence, and power, and prosperity are invol- 
ved, and in love to the souls of perishing 
men, and to Him, the travail of whose 
soul they are, let us avail ourselves of every 
means within our reach of bringing up all 
our ministers, churches, officers, and mem- 
bers, to the right knowledge of Christ and 
keeping of his commandments, which is the 
complete work and business of a Christian. 
For surely conformity to Christ, and unison 
of heart, will, spirit, and purpose, with him, 
is the very being of a Christian, without 
which he is without Christ as the source of 
life and the spring and fountain 'of happiness. 

MOTIVES FOR DOING WHAT EVERY ONE CAN DO. 

Brethren, would we be honest? There i3 
one debt we owe, which is ever pressing 
upon us, which we can never fully pay, 
w^hich we must be ever owing and ever pay- 
ing, and in so doing experience ''an over- 



84 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

payment of delight" — and that is "to love 
one another, to love and do good to all men 
as we have opportuity," that "through our 
mercy- they may receive mercy." Are we 
paying punctual interest and constant divi- 
dends on this debt, and thus in giving, re- 
ceiving, in scattering abroad, increasing, and 
in blessing, being blessed, yea, so blessed as 
to have the windows of heaven opened, and 
God's grace poured out upon us in such meas- 
ure that we shall not be able fully to receive 
it? 

Would we, as Christians, be happy, and 
live in peace and joy? Then we must live 
in love. Christian happiness is society, fel- 
lowship with God in Christ, with angels, and 
with saints. God is love, and every one that 
loveth is born of God. "If any man love 
God, he is known of God," and so knows 
God. " He that dwelleth in love dwelleth 
in God." Love is the nature of God, and 
the element of Christian life — love to Him 
that begat, and to all those that are begotten 
of him. Love shines as a light into the 
Christian's heart, acts as a torch or a fire 



TO BE CONVERTED? 85 

Within him. His knowledge of Christ in- 
flames his love and hatred. As surely 
as he sees him, he abhors himself, and is 
transported with the love of Christ shed 
abroad in his heart. Thus humble and 
happy, he cannot restrain his feelings. He 
is consumed with an inward and irresisti- 
ble desire for others that they also may 
be saved. Every soul saved is a soul to 
love, a new w^ell-spring of joy, an object of 
wonder and delight, another child added to 
the family of God, another companion in 
tribulation and in trial, another star lighted 
up in the firmament of heaven, another gem 
sparkling in the crown of the Redeemer, 
another harp, with his, to swell the song of 
the Lamb before the throne. 

Hosaima, sound from hill to hill, 
And spread from plain to plain, 

While louder, sweeter, clearer still, 
"Woods echo to the strain. 

Hosanna on tjie wings of light, 

O'er earth and ocean fly, 
*Till mom to eve, and noon to night, 

And heaven to earth reply. 
8* 



86 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

Brethren, we have but a day in which to 
live, and labour, and work, and that day is 
far spent. The night is at hand, when no 
man can work. We have but one season in 
which to prepare for ourselves a plentiful 
harvest, and the spring is past, the summer 
is gone, and the harvest season nearly over, 
and we can only reap according as we have 
sown. We have but one life and one body 
"to spend and be spent for Christ," and as 
" herein he is now glorified if we bear much 
fruit,'' so " will he render to every man who, 
by patient continuance in well-doing, seeks 
for glory, and honour, and immortality, eter- 
nal life." 

Brethren, what mean these aches and 
pains, and this weariness, and these often in- 
firmities, these wrinkles, and hoary hairs, and 
these other failings of our natural strength? 
Oh, are they not all designed to show us 
that our stay here is short, our connection 
with earth transient, our continuance in this 
earthly house but as that of the wayfaring 
man who turneth aside from his far journey 
for a night ? 



TO BE CONVERTED? 8T 

Oh, let us, then, now enter into fellowship 
with Christ in the work given him to do, and 
which he has commanded us to fill up — 
even that which is behind and still unfulfilled, 
of the universal efficacy of the suflferings of 
Christ, and "the glory that is to follow" 
the preaching of the gospel, "whereof we 
are made the ministers" or agents. Christ, 
though in the form of God, and being God, 
entered into the fellowship with us in all 
our infirmities, nay, in our miseries, in our 
guilt, in our condemnation and death, in 
all our pains and penalties, in all our sorrows 
and solicitudes. To be able thus to sympa- 
thize with us, and succour and save us, 
Christ united himself with our very nature, 
and became a "propitiation for the sins of the 
ivorld. Having done all this, he now invites 
us to enter into fellowship with his divine 
nature, with his gifts and graces, his glory 
and blessedness, his death, resurrection, and 
ascension, his ever-living power and presence 
with his people — by preaching the good 
tidings to every creature in all the world, 
making them his disciples, and teaching them 



88 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

his will. To have such communion with the 
Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, is the 
honour, the dignity, and the happiness of the 
believing heart. Oh, then, being exalted to 
such a heavenly privilege, let us not be like 
brute beasts, understanding it not, but rather 
let us rejoice in it, and count all things 
but loss for the excellency of being lifted up 
from death and pollution to this fellowship 
with the throne, the society, the friendship, 
and the service of the great God and our 
Saviour, Jesus Christ. Oh, let him come in 
and take possession, and have full and trans- 
forming fellowship with these cold hearts of 
ours, these dead and carnal affections, these 
low and grovelling desires, and vrith what- 
ever in our hopes and powers, our influence 
and activity, our money and our means, he 
will be pleased to use for his glory, and our 
mutual endearment and happiness. This, 
yes this, will be the felicity of heaven, and 
this, yes this, may impart to us heaven be- 
low, and, by the full exercise of this grace, 
ripen into an early blossom the fragrant 
flowers of Paradise. 



TO BE CONVERTED? 89 

And as it has pleased Christ in his infi- 
nite wisdom and mercy to represent himself 
as present and visible in these poor and per- 
ishing souls around us, and in these heathen 
who are his inheritance, and heirs to his 
testamentary blessings, oh, thou divine and 
blessed Saviour, who canst give power and 
quicken into life, oh, give us faith to look 
upon them as such ! Help us to look through 
their unworthiness, their vileness, their in- 
gratitude, their hard and impenitent and 
blinded hearts, and to see in them thee, our 
Lord and our God. As strangers let us 
take them in. As sick with the foul leprosy 
of sin, as bound in the prison of the great 
adversary who leads them captive at his will, 
as hungering and thirsting and yet spending 
their strength for naught, and their labour 
for that which satisfieth not, help us to visit 
them, to give them the bread of heaven, and 
the water of life, and in so doing, to feel that 
we are doing it all to thee, and that we shall 
in no wise lose our reward, when thou, our 
righteous Judge, shalt say to all such " Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 



90 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
one of the least of these, my brethren, ye 
have done it unto me." 

Give us, then, divine and merciful Sa- 
viour, faith and love, to break through this 
selfishness, this self-seeking, this worldliness, 
this covetousness which is idolatry, this flesh- 
lusting spirit, which freezes up our warmest 
afl*ections. Help, help us to bring these 
objects of thy love, which are distant, near; 
to render them visible to the eye of our minds 
though unseen ; to make them present though 
absent; creditors though debtors; friends 
though foes ; dear and beloved though black 
and uncomely ; and all this because they are 
thine, and dear to thee, and yet to be brought 
nigh and given to thee for thy possession. 

Most blessed Saviour! Thou who only art 

The sacred fountain of eternal light, 
All-powerful magnet of my inmost heart ! 

Oh, thou, my heart's desire, my soul's delight! 
My soul irradiate and thy power impart. 

And then my soul shall prize no good above thee. 

And then my soul shall know, and knowing, love thee, 
And then my trembling thoughts shall never start 



TO BE CONVERTED? 91 

From thy commands or swerve the least degree, 
Or even desire to move but as they move in thee, 
Thus living, loving, serving thee "below, § 

Do thou thy strength, thy gi'ace, thy peace bestow. 

" God be merciful unto us, and bless us ; 
and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. 
That thy way may be known upon earth, 
thy saving health among all nations. Let 
the people praise thee, God; let all the 
people praise thee. let the nations be 
glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge 
the people righteously, and govern the na- 
tions upon earth. Selah. Let the people 
praise thee, God; let all the people praise 
thee. Then shall the earth yield her in- 
crease; and God, even our own God, shall 
bless us." Psalm Ixvii. 1-6. 

" It shall come, that I will gather all na- 
tions and tongues, and they shall come and 
see my glory." Isa. Ixvi. 18. " It shall 
come to pass in the last days, that the moun- 
tain of the Lord's house shall be established 
in the top of the mountains, and shall be 
exalted above the hills, and all nations shall 
flow to it; and many people shall go and 



92 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD 

say. Come ye, let us go up to the mountain 
of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we 
will walk in his paths." Isa. ii. 2, 3. And 
again, " Behold, thus saith the Lord, I will 
lift up my hand to the gentiles, and set up 
my standard to the people, and they shall 
bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daugh- 
ters shall be carried upon their shoulders." 
Isa. xlix. 22. And again, "Behold, thou 
shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, 
and nations that know not thee shall run 
unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and 
for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glo- 
rified thee." Isa. Iv. 5. blessed, then, 
ever blessed be thy name, mighty and 
most merciful Saviour, who hast been pleased 
to make thyself known among us gentiles. 
"Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the 
people, give unto the Lord glory and strength ; 
give unto the Lord the glory due to his name." 
Psal. xcvi. 7. "All the earth shall worship 
thee, and shall sing unto thee, they shall sing 
unto thy name." Psal. Ixvi. 4. "All the 
ends of the world shall remember, and turn 



TO BE CONVERTED? 93 

unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the 
nations shall worship before thee/' Psal. 
xxii. 27. 

that the Church on earth could travail 
in earnest prayer for this glorious day of 
grace, with the Church of the redeemed in 
heaven. 

"And when he had opened the fifth seal, 
I saw under the altar the souls of them that 
were slain for the word of God, and for the 
testimony which they held : and they cried 
with a loud voice, saying. How long, 
Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge 
and avenge our blood on them that dwell on 
the earth ? And white robes were given unto 
every one of them ; and it was said unto them, 
that they should rest yet for a little season, 
until their fellow-servants also and their 
brethren, that should be killed as they were, 
should be fulfilled." Rev. vi. 9—11. 

''And I saw as it were a sea of glass min- 
gled with fire ; and them that had gotten the 
victory over the beast, and over his image, 
and over his mark, and over the number of 
9 



94 BY WHOM IS THE WORLD, ETC. 

his name, stand on the sea of glass, having 
the harps of God, and they sing the song of 
Moses the servant of God, and the song of 
the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous 
are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just 
and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 
Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glo- 
rify thy name ? for thou only art holy : for 
all nations shall come and worship before 
thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." 
Rev. XV. 2—4. 

So vast the electric chain, such the appeal! 

Start we to hear the overwhelming claim ? 

Yea, more than words the covenanted seal, 

For there are Three in heaven; the glorious name 

Whose word of promise sure shall never fail. 

Lift then thy voice, get up unto the mountain, 

Say unto Zion, from thy trance awaken, 

Thy sea goes forth, in every land a fountain 

Springs forth to thee I now no more forsaken, 

City of God great things of thee are spoken. 

All nations have discerned the glorious token, 

Lift up thy mountain voice; the spell of death is broken. 



APPENDIX. 



Note A. 

As this is a tmtli wliicli enters into our conclu- 
sion of the obligation and duty which this consti- 
tution implies, I will give some illustration of it. 
The late Amos Lawrence, among his private en- 
tries has the following : ^^ Jan. 1, 1849 — I adopted 
the practice ten years ago, of spending my income. 
My outgoes since the first of January, 1842, have 
been upward of $400,000, and my property on the 
first of this year is as great as on January 1, 1842. 
The more I give, the more I have.^' Again : 
'^ Jan. 1, 1852 — The outgoes for all objects since 
January 1, 1842 (ten years,) have been $604,000 
more than five-sixths of which have been applied 
in making other people happy.^^ Here is an ex- 
ample of reproductive profusion — '' The more I 
give, the more I get;*' scattering, yet increasing. 
And, along with the increase of substance, what 
is still rarer and more precious, the increase of 
personal felicity. Instead of scattering, had he 

(95) 



96 APPENDIX. 

concentrated all this outlay on himself, had he 
spent the half million on dainty viands and costly 
wines, on sumptuous furniture and glittering vehi- 
cles, he would have done no more than many do, 
on whose careworn, dissatisfied countenances, God 
has inscribed the curse of self-idolatry; but by 
spending it in the effort to make other people 
happy, Amos Lawrence extended the sphere of 
his enjoyment as wide as the objects of his philan- 
thropy, and in his shining face he habitually 
showed that God had given him the blessedness 
of a man, for whom many prayed and whom He 
greatly loved. 

So essential to the truest enjoyment is a gener- 
ous disposition, that we cannot refrain from quot- 
ing the words of one whose kind deeds were 
almost as numerous as his brilliant sayings, and 
who gives the following ^^receipt for making every 
day happy :'^ — ^^When you rise in the morning 
form the resolution to make the day a happy one 
to a fellow-creature. It is easily done; a left-off 
garment to the man who needs it, a kind word to 
the sorrowful, an encouraging expression to the 
striving ; trifles in themselves, light as air, will do 
it, at least for the twenty-four hours ; and if you 
are young, depend upon it, it will tell when you 
are old ; and, if you are old, rest assured it will 



APPENDIX. 97 

send you"gently and happily down the stream of 
time to eternity. By the most simple arithmeti- 
cal sum look at the result ; you send one person, 
only one, happily through the day ; that is three 
hundred and sixty-five in the course of the year; 
and, supposing you live forty years only after you 
commence that course of medicine, you have made 
fourteen thousand six hundred human beings 
happy, at all events, for a time. Now, worthy 
reader, is not this simple ? It is too short for a 
sermon, too homely for ethics, and too easily ac- 
complished for you to say, ^ I would if I could.^ ^' 

What Sydney Smith recommends, was the prac- 
tice of Cotton Mather, two hundred years ago. 
*Few men have ever condensed into the narrow 
limits of human existence so much substantial 
service to their fellow-creatures as that good man, 
whose name is still a household word in new Eng- 
land homes. And it would appear that it was 
his custom every morning when he awoke, to con- 
sider these three things. What is there I can 
this day do for the welfare of my family? What 
is there I can do in the service of my neighbour ? 
What is there I can do for the glory of God ? 

Of this principle, Sydney Smith affords a most 
pertinent example of what the experience of Wil- 
berforce, Howard, every philanthropist, mission- 
9* 



98 APPENDIX. 

ary, and liberal-minded and liberal-hearted Chris- 
tian will confirm. 

^^I was very poor/^ says he, ^Hill I was appointed 
to St. Paurs.'^ The valuable living of Edmonton, 
which was in the gift of St Paul's, fell vacant. 
By the rules of the Chapter, he could have taken 
it himself, or given it as he pleased. The late 
vicar, Mr. Tate, was a friend of his own, who, 
years before, as a Yorkshire clergyman, had stood 
up with him in favour of Catholic Emancipation. 
He left a family behind him, his eldest son having 
been his curate ; and Sydney Smith writes to his 
wife the following account of his interview with 
the widow and family, after he had determined to 
give the cure to the son of his old friend, in place 
of giving it to himself. 

^' Dear Kate, — I went over yesterday to the 
Tates, at Edmonton. The family consists of three 
delicate daughters, an aunt, the old lady, and her 
son, then curate of Edmonton : — the old lady was 
in bed. I found there a physician, an old friend 
of Tate's, attending them from friendship, who 
had come from London for that purpose. They 
were in daily expectation of being turned out from 

house and curacy I began by inquiring 

the character of their servant, then turned the 
conversation upon their affairs, and expressed a 



APPENDIX. 99 

hope the Chapter might ultimately do something 
for them. I then said, ^ It is m j duty to state to 
you (they were all assembled,) that I have given 
away the living of Edmonton; I have written to 
our Chapter-clerk this morning, to mention the 
person to whom I have given it : and I must also 
tell you, that I am sure he will appoint his curate. 
(A general silence and dejection.) It is a very 
odd coincidence,' I added, ^ that the gentleman I 
have selected, is a namesake of this family. His 
name is Tate. Have you any relations of that 
name?' ^No, we have not.' ^ And by a more 
singular coincidence, his name is Thomas Tate. 
In short,' I added, ' there is no use mincing the 
matter; you are vicar of Edmonton.' They all 
burst into tears. It flung me also into a great 
agitation of tears, and I wept and groaned for a 
long time. Then I rose and said, I thought it 
was very likely to end in their keeping a buggy, 
at which we all laughed as violently. 

^^ The poor old lady, who was sleeping in a gar- 
ret, because she could not bear to enter into the 
room lately inhabited by her husband, sent for 
me, and kissed me, sobbing with a thousand emo- 
tions. The charitable physician wept too. ... I 
never passed so remarkable a morning, nor was 
more deeply impressed with the sufferings of hu- 



100 APPENDIX. 

man life, and never felt more thoroughly the 
happiness of doing good/^ 

"I never was happy/^ said a certain king, "till 
I began to take pleasure in the welfare of my 
people; but ever since then, in the darkest day 
I have had sunshine in my heart.'^ 



Note B. 

" It is not to be presumed,'' says our last Gen- 
eral Assembly in its Report on Systematic Contri- 
butions, " that Grod gives people a soul niggardly 
from meanness, or parsimonious from covetous- 
ness; and yet their contributions to the treasury 
of the Lord are amazingly disproportioned to 
their blessings and resources. This can only be 
resolved into ignorance of duty, or a failure to 
apprehend the real relation of liberality in alms- 
giving to their Christian profession. As ^^what- 
soever is not of faith is sin/' so whatever does 
not appeal to their faith cannot permanently inter- 
est their hearts. It cannot be denied that our 
churches have been too much accustomed to look 
upon giving as purely a matter of Christian liber- 
ty, a thing which might or might not be done, ac- 
cording to the impulses which happen to prevail 



APPENDIX. 101 

at the moment, without in either case involving 
the integrity of Christian character. What has 
been given, has been regarded as a bounty, and 
those who solicit it represented as beggars. This 
has been a feeling implicitly recognized where it 
has not been explicitly announced. 

" Appeals in behalf of the dearest interests of 
Christ's kingdom have been in many cases coldly 
received, in others formally repulsed^ on the plea 
of repugnance to so much begging. 

• ^^ It was not that the people were penurious or 
mean, but that they did not understand the nature 
of the case ; and the way to remove the difficulty 
is not by denunciation or invective, but by famil- 
iar exposition of the scriptural principle upon 
which these appeals are made. The law of the 
Lord, when clearly apprehended, can never fail to 
tell upon the hearts and consciences of the chil- 
dren of Grod. That law in relation to the ques- 
tion before us, is, that liberality is a grace of the 
Spirit, alms-giving an office of Christian worship, 
and collections for the poor and the spread of the 
gospel an ordinance of God. 

'^Giving, in the Scripture, is put upon substan- 
tially the same basis as prayer; the one is the sac- 
rifice of the lips, and the other of the substance; 
and the acceptance of our gifts is a greater proof 



102 APPENDIX. 

of the Divine condescension, than the acceptance 
of our petitions. God needs none of our offerings ; 
the cattle upon a thousand hills are his, and if 
he were -hungry he would not tell us. But though 
needing nothing at our hands, he has condescend- 
ed, for the purpose of uniting our hearts to him 
in profounder sympathy, to assume a position in 
which he appeals to us as really and tenderly as 
if he needed all things. Though our alms and 
our righteousness extend not directly to him, yet 
the Saviour is comforted and refreshed with the 
humblest ministrations to his saints upon the 
earth; it is he who receives the cup of cold wa- 
ter administered to his disciples. The believer, 
accordingly, who enters into the spirit of the 
Christian doctrine, must feel it almost hardly less 
a grievance to be debarred from the throne of 
grace, than to be prevented from casting his mite 
into the treasury of the Lord, and would as soon 
think of turning Christ from his doors, or leaving 
him un visited in sickness and in prison, as think 
of slighting the appeals of Christ's earthly king- 
dom to his contributions and his sympathies. It 
is Christ whom we honour in serving the interests 
of his kingdom, or rather it is Christ who honours 
us, in thus permitting us to honour him, and as 
all Christian duties are at the same time privi- 



APPENDIX. 103 

leges, and every precept stands upon a promise, so 
tlie child of God habitually experiences that " it 
is more blessed to give than to receive/^ He is 
the beggar who solicits the favour of having his 
gift accepted, and he feels it to be a distinction 
that he can glorify God with the fruits of his sub- 
stance, having given himself to the Lord. All 
that he possesses is equally devoted, and what he 
uses for himself is rather by permission than by 
right of property. It is this priociple which 
makes alms-giving a species of thanksgiving, and 
gifts a part of our spiritual worship. This prin- 
ciple underlies the whole subject of Systematic 
Benevolence. 

'' The recognition of this principle, in its full- 
ness and energy, is all that is wanted to infuse 
new life into the Church, and to make our offer- 
ings commensurate with our resources. 

^^Alms-giving being at once a duty and a pri- 
vilege, an ordinance of God and a means of grace, 
it is manifestly incumbent upon the courts of the 
Church to impart this, as well as every other bless- 
ing of the gospel, to the Christian people. Any 
believer has a right to complain that his soul 
is neglected, and the fulness of his Christian 
inheritance impaired, if he has not the opportu- 
nity of presenting his gifts as well as of hearing 



104 APPENDIX. 

the word. The General Assembly accordingly 
has done no more than it was bound to do, in en- 
joining upon the Presbyteries ^ to adopt some prac- 
ticable method by which an opportunity shall be 
afforded, and an invitation given to all the mem- 
bers of their congregations to contribute regularly 
to the objects of Christian benevolence, recognized 
by the Assembly in the organization of the Boards 
of the Church, and to such other institutions as to 
them may seem right/ 

'^ But it is not enough that the Assembly should 
command in the name of Christ, it must also see 
that its injunctions are obeyed, and hence it has 
required an Annual Report from every Presbytery 
in its bounds, of the diligence of ministers and 
church sessions in complying with its requisi- 
tions. Therefore our Greneral Assembly enjoins 
upon the pastors and churches to give greater 
prominence, in the ministration of the word, to 
the doctrine of the Scripture as set forth and in- 
terpreted in our standards, (more particularly 
chap. 26, sec. 2 of the Confession; in quest. 121 
of the Larger Catechism : in chap. 7 of the Form 
of Government; and in chap. 6, sec. 5, of the 
Directory for Worship,) namely, that ^ saints are, 
by profession, bound to maintain an holy fellow- 
ship and communion; in relieving each other in 



APPENDIX. 105 

outward things according to their several abilities 
and necessitieSj which communion, as God offereth 
opportunities, is to be extended unto all those, 
who in every place call upon the name of the Lord 
Jesus/ ^ giving and lending freely according to 
their abilities, and in conformity to this doctrine, 
recognizing as one of the ordinances established 
by Christ,^ in connection with the sermon, prayer 
and praise, a ^collection raised for the poor and 
other purposes of the Church/ 

^^2. Resolved, The Presbyteries, which have 
not anticipated the provisions of this action of the 
Assembly, are most earnestly and affectionately 
enjoined, (1) at their meeting following the rising 
of this Assembly, to take order that the ministers 
and church sessions in their bounds, shall be di- 
rected to adopt some practical metliodj by which 
an opportunity shall be afforded, and an invitation 
given to all the members of their congregations, 
to contribute regularly to the objects of Christian 
benevolence, recognized by the Assembly, in the 
organization of the Boards of the Church, and to 
such other institutions as to them may seem 
right. 

'' And (2) at every spring meeting to institute 
a proper inquiry into the diligence of ministers 
10 



106 APPENDIX. 

and church sessions in executing the provisions of 
such method. 

^^3. Resolved, The Presbyteries are further en- 
joined to enter on record and report to the next 
General Assembly, their action on the first part 
of the foregoing resolution, and also to record at 
their next and all subsequent spring meetings, 
the result of the inquiry prescribed, and report 
the same to the General Assembly, with the usual 
annual Presbyterial reports, stating the delin- 
quencies and diligence of pastors and church ses- 
sions/^ 

Never did our Church, or any other, more plain- 
ly and practically hold forth the truth on the rela- 
tion of Christian activity and liberality in the 
cause of Christ, to all Christian prosperity and 
progress, than in the principles and provisions 
here set forth. 

We trust they will be universally responded to 
by all the Presbyteries in our Church, in the same 
spirit in which they were acted upon by the 
Presbytery of Huntingdon, at its recent meeting, 
when it adopted the following resolutions : 

"Resolved, 1st. That love to Christ's cause is an 
essential element of Christian piety; and a regular 
communication of our worldly substance, accord- 



APPENDIX. 107 

ing as God hatli prospered us, an ordinary and im- 
portant part of practical religion. 

^^2d. That accordingly, it is as much the duty 
of the pastors and officers of the churches to make 
arrangements for the cultivation of the grace of 
benevolence, for the performance of this part of 
practical religion, as for any other of the offices of 
religion. Therefore, 

" 3d. That it be affectionately enjoined upon 
the pastors and the other appropriate officers of 
the churches, to adopt and put in efficient opera- 
tion, some plan for making regular collections for 
the four Boards (and Church Extension Commit- 
tee) of the Church, so that a contribution for 
each shall be made at least once every year. 

" And it is further enjoined, that one or other 
of the following plans be adopted by each church, 
provided there is not an equally efficient one al- 
ready in operation. 

'^Plan 1. A card or book with the names of 
all the members of the congregation upon it, with 
columns for weekly, or monthly, or quarterly sums, 
such as they may voluntarily offer to pay. The 
sum to be paid either to the elders, the deacons, 
or to persons specially appointed in each district 
of the congregation. 

'^Plan 2. Monthly collections in the church 



108 APPENDIX. 

to be divided amongst the Boards, at the discretion 
of the deacons, or (in case there be no deacons) 
of the Session. 

'^ Plan 3. A quarterly sermon in behalf of the 
Boards, (assigning a quarter to each,) to be fol- 
lowed by a collection or subscription for the Board 
whose cause was advocated in the sermon/^ 



THE END. 



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